The origin of the word english people

«English nation» redirects here. For the country of the United Kingdom, see England.

English people

Regions with significant populations
United Kingdom: 37.6 million in England and Wales[1]
Significant English diaspora in
United States	25.2 million[2] (2020)a
Australia	8.3 million[3] (2021)b
Canada	6.3 million[4] (2016)c
South Africa	40,000-1.6 million[5] (2011)d
New Zealand	210,915[6] (2018)e
Argentina	100,000[7]
Languages
English
Religion
Christianity, traditionally Anglicanism, but also non-conformists and dissenters (see History of the Church of England), as well as other Protestants; also Roman Catholicism (see Catholic Emancipation); Islam (see Islam in England); Judaism and other faiths (see Religion in England)
Related ethnic groups
other British people Celtic Britons Irish
a English American, b English Australian, c English Canadian, d British diaspora in Africa, e English New Zealander

The English people are an ethnic group and nation native to England, who speak the English language, a West Germanic language, and share a common history and culture.^[8] The English identity began with the Anglo-Saxons, when they were known as the Angelcynn, meaning race or tribe of the Angles. Their ethnonym is derived from the Angles, one of the Germanic peoples who migrated to Great Britain around the 5th century AD.^[9]

The English largely descend from two main historical population groups: the West Germanic tribes, including the Angles, Saxons, Jutes, and Frisians who settled in Southern Britain following the withdrawal of the Romans, and the partially Romanised Celtic Britons who already lived there.^{[10][11][12][13]} Collectively known as the Anglo-Saxons, they founded what was to become the Kingdom of England by the early 10th century, in response to the invasion and extensive settlement of Danes that began in the late 9th century.^[14][15] This was followed by the Norman Conquest and limited settlement of Normans in England in the later 11th century.^{[16][17][18][10][19]} Some definitions of English people include, while others exclude, people descended from later migration into England.^[20]

England is the largest and most populous country in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. In the Acts of Union 1707, the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland merged to become the Kingdom of Great Britain.^[21] Over the years, English customs and identity have become fairly closely aligned with British customs and identity in general. The majority of people living in England are British citizens.

English nationality[edit]

England itself has no devolved government. The 1990s witnessed a rise in English self-awareness.^[22] This is linked to the expressions of national self-awareness of the other British nations of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland which take their most solid form in the new devolved political arrangements within the United Kingdom – and the waning of a shared British national identity with the growing distance between the end of the British Empire and the present.^[23][24][25]

Many recent immigrants to England have assumed a solely British identity, while others have developed dual or mixed identities.^{[26][27][28][29][30]} Use of the word «English» to describe Britons from ethnic minorities in England is complicated by most non-white people in England identifying as British rather than English. In their 2004 Annual Population Survey, the Office for National Statistics compared the ethnic identities of British people with their perceived national identity. They found that while 58% of white people in England described their nationality as «English», non-white people were more likely to describe themselves as «British».^[31]

Relationship to Britishness[edit]

It is unclear how many British people consider themselves English. The words «English» and «British» are often incorrectly used interchangeably, especially outside the UK. In his study of English identity, Krishan Kumar describes a common slip of the tongue in which people say «English, I mean British». He notes that this slip is normally made only by the English themselves and by foreigners: «Non-English members of the United Kingdom rarely say ‘British’ when they mean ‘English'». Kumar suggests that although this blurring is a sign of England’s dominant position with the UK, it is also «problematic for the English […] when it comes to conceiving of their national identity. It tells of the difficulty that most English people have of distinguishing themselves, in a collective way, from the other inhabitants of the British Isles».^[32]

In 1965, the historian A. J. P. Taylor wrote,

When the Oxford History of England was launched a generation ago, «England» was still an all-embracing word. It meant indiscriminately England and Wales; Great Britain; the United Kingdom; and even the British Empire. Foreigners used it as the name of a Great Power and indeed continue to do so. Bonar Law, by origin a Scotch Canadian, was not ashamed to describe himself as «Prime Minister of England» […] Now terms have become more rigorous. The use of «England» except for a geographic area brings protests, especially from the Scotch.^[33]

However, although Taylor believed this blurring effect was dying out, in his book The Isles: A History (1999), Norman Davies lists numerous examples in history books of «British» still being used to mean «English» and vice versa.^[34]

In December 2010, Matthew Parris in The Spectator, analysing the use of «English» over «British», argued that English identity, rather than growing, had existed all along but has recently been unmasked from behind a veneer of Britishness.^[35]

Historical and genetic origins[edit]

Replacement of Neolithic farmers by Bell Beaker populations[edit]

English people, like most Europeans, largely descend from three distinct lineages:^[36] Mesolithic hunter-gatherers, descended from a Cro-Magnon population that arrived in Europe about 45,000 years ago;^[37] Neolithic farmers who migrated from Anatolia during the Neolithic Revolution 9,000 years ago;^[38] and Yamnaya Steppe pastoralists who expanded into Europe from the Pontic–Caspian steppe in the context of Indo-European migrations 5,000 years ago.^[36]

Recent genetic studies have suggested that Britain’s Neolithic population was largely replaced by a population from North Continental Europe characterised by the Bell Beaker culture around 2400 BC, associated with the Yamnaya people from the Pontic-Caspian Steppe. This population lacked genetic affinity to some other Bell Beaker populations, such as the Iberian Bell Beakers, but appeared to be an offshoot of the Corded Ware single grave people, as developed in Western Europe.^[39][40] It is currently unknown whether these Beaker peoples went on to develop Celtic languages in the British Isles, or whether later Celtic migrations introduced Celtic languages to Britain.^[41]

The close genetic affinity of these Beaker people to Continental North Europeans means that British and Irish populations cluster genetically very closely with other Northwest European populations, regardless of how much Anglo-Saxon and Viking ancestry was introduced during the 1st millennium.^[42][39]

Anglo-Saxons, Vikings and Normans[edit]

The influence of later invasions and migrations on the English population has been debated, as studies that sampled only modern DNA have produced uncertain results and have thus been subject to a large variety of interpretations.^[43][44][45] More recently, however, ancient DNA has been used to provide a clearer picture of the genetic effects of these movements of people.

One 2016 study, using Iron Age and Anglo-Saxon era DNA found at grave sites in Cambridgeshire, calculated that ten modern day eastern English samples had 38% Anglo-Saxon ancestry on average, while ten Welsh and Scottish samples each had 30% Anglo-Saxon ancestry, with a large statistical spread in all cases. However, the authors noted that the similarity observed between the various sample groups was likely to be due to more recent internal migration.^[46]

Another 2016 study conducted using evidence from burials found in northern England, found that a significant genetic difference was present in bodies from the Iron Age and the Roman period on the one hand, and the Anglo-Saxon period on the other. Samples from modern-day Wales were found to be similar to those from the Iron Age and Roman burials, while samples from much of modern England, East Anglia in particular, were closer to the Anglo-Saxon-era burial. This was found to demonstrate a «profound impact» from the Anglo-Saxon migrations on the modern English gene pool, though no specific percentages were given in the study.^[12]

A third study combined the ancient data from both of the preceding studies and compared it to a large number of modern samples from across Britain and Ireland. This study found that modern southern, central and eastern English populations were of «a predominantly Anglo-Saxon-like ancestry» while those from northern and southwestern England had a greater degree of indigenous origin.^[47]

A major 2020 study, which used DNA from Viking-era burials in various regions across Europe, found that modern English samples showed nearly equal contributions from a native British «North Atlantic» population and a Danish-like population. While much of the latter signature was attributed to the earlier settlement of the Anglo-Saxons, it was calculated that up to 6% of it could have come from Danish Vikings, with a further 4% contribution from a Norwegian-like source representing the Norwegian Vikings. The study also found an average 18% admixture from a source further south in Europe, which was interpreted as reflecting the legacy of French migration under the Normans.^[48]

A landmark 2022 study titled «The Anglo-Saxon migration and the formation of the early English gene pool», found the English to be of plurality Anglo-Saxon-like ancestry, with heavy native Celtic Briton, and newly confirmed medieval French admixture. Significant regional variation was also observed.^[49]

History of English people[edit]

«History of the English» redirects here. Not to be confused with History of English.

Anglo-Saxon settlement[edit]

The first people to be called «English» were the Anglo-Saxons, a group of closely related Germanic tribes that began migrating to eastern and southern Great Britain, from southern Denmark and northern Germany, in the 5th century AD, after the Romans had withdrawn from Britain. The Anglo-Saxons gave their name to England («Engla land», meaning «Land of the Angles») and to the English.

The Anglo-Saxons arrived in a land that was already populated by people commonly referred to as the «Romano-British»—the descendants of the native Brittonic-speaking population that lived in the area of Britain under Roman rule during the 1st–5th centuries AD. The multi-ethnic nature of the Roman Empire meant that small numbers of other peoples may have also been present in England before the Anglo-Saxons arrived. There is archaeological evidence, for example, of an early North African presence in a Roman garrison at Aballava, now Burgh-by-Sands, in Cumbria: a 4th-century inscription says that the Roman military unit «Numerus Maurorum Aurelianorum» («unit of Aurelian Moors») from Mauretania (Morocco) was stationed there.^[50] Although the Roman Empire incorporated peoples from far and wide, genetic studies suggest the Romans did not significantly mix into the British population.^[51]

The exact nature of the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons and their relationship with the Romano-British is a matter of debate. The traditional view is that a mass invasion by various Anglo-Saxon tribes largely displaced the indigenous British population in southern and eastern Great Britain (modern-day England with the exception of Cornwall). This is supported by the writings of Gildas, who gives the only contemporary historical account of the period, and describes the slaughter and starvation of native Britons by invading tribes (aduentus Saxonum).^[52] Furthermore, the English language contains no more than a handful of words borrowed from Brittonic sources.^[53]

This view was later re-evaluated by some archaeologists and historians, with a more small-scale migration being posited, possibly based around an elite of male warriors that took over the rule of the country and gradually acculturated the people living there.^[54][55][56] Within this theory, two processes leading to Anglo-Saxonisation have been proposed. One is similar to culture changes observed in Russia, North Africa and parts of the Islamic world, where a politically and socially powerful minority culture becomes, over a rather short period, adopted by a settled majority. This process is usually termed «elite dominance».^[57] The second process is explained through incentives, such as the Wergild outlined in the law code of Ine of Wessex which produced an incentive to become Anglo-Saxon or at least English speaking.^[58] Historian Malcolm Todd writes, «It is much more likely that a large proportion of the British population remained in place and was progressively dominated by a Germanic aristocracy, in some cases marrying into it and leaving Celtic names in the, admittedly very dubious, early lists of Anglo-Saxon dynasties. But how we identify the surviving Britons in areas of predominantly Anglo-Saxon settlement, either archaeologically or linguistically, is still one of the deepest problems of early English history.»^[59]

An emerging view is that the degree of population replacement by the Anglo-Saxons, and thus the degree of survival of the Romano-Britons, varied across England, and that as such the overall settlement of Britain by the Anglo-Saxons cannot be described by any one process in particular. Large-scale migration and population shift seems to be most applicable in the cases of eastern regions such as East Anglia and Lincolnshire,^{[60][61][62][63][64]} while in parts of Northumbria, much of the native population likely remained in place as the incomers took over as elites.^[65][66] In a study of place names in northeastern England and southern Scotland, Bethany Fox found that the migrants settled in large numbers in river valleys, such as those of the Tyne and the Tweed, with the Britons moving to the less fertile hill country and becoming acculturated over a longer period. Fox describes the process by which English came to dominate this region as «a synthesis of mass-migration and elite-takeover models.»^[67]

Vikings and the Danelaw[edit]

From about 800 AD waves of Danish Viking assaults on the coastlines of the British Isles were gradually followed by a succession of Danish settlers in England. At first, the Vikings were very much considered a separate people from the English. This separation was enshrined when Alfred the Great signed the Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum to establish the Danelaw, a division of England between English and Danish rule, with the Danes occupying northern and eastern England.^[68]

However, Alfred’s successors subsequently won military victories against the Danes, incorporating much of the Danelaw into the nascent kingdom of England. Danish invasions continued into the 11th century, and there were both English and Danish kings in the period following the unification of England (for example, Æthelred II (978–1013 and 1014–1016) was English but Cnut (1016–1035) was Danish).

Gradually, the Danes in England came to be seen as ‘English’. They had a noticeable impact on the English language: many English words, such as anger, ball, egg, got, knife, take, and they, are of Old Norse origin,^[69] and place names that end in -thwaite and -by are Scandinavian in origin.^[70]

English unification[edit]

The English population was not politically unified until the 10th century. Before then, there were a number of petty kingdoms which gradually coalesced into a heptarchy of seven states, the most powerful of which were Mercia and Wessex. The English nation state began to form when the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms united against Danish Viking invasions, which began around 800 AD. Over the following century and a half England was for the most part a politically unified entity, and remained permanently so after 959.

The nation of England was formed in 937 by Æthelstan of Wessex after the Battle of Brunanburh,^[71][72] as Wessex grew from a relatively small kingdom in the South West to become the founder of the Kingdom of the English, incorporating all Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and the Danelaw.^[73]

Norman and Angevin rule[edit]

The Norman conquest of England during 1066 brought Anglo-Saxon and Danish rule of England to an end, as the new French speaking Norman elite almost universally replaced the Anglo-Saxon aristocracy and church leaders. After the conquest, «English» normally included all natives of England, whether they were of Anglo-Saxon, Scandinavian or Celtic ancestry, to distinguish them from the Norman invaders, who were regarded as «Norman» even if born in England, for a generation or two after the Conquest.^[74] The Norman dynasty ruled England for 87 years until the death of King Stephen in 1154, when the succession passed to Henry II, House of Plantagenet (based in France), and England became part of the Angevin Empire until 1214.

Various contemporary sources suggest that within 50 years of the invasion most of the Normans outside the royal court had switched to English, with Anglo-Norman remaining the prestige language of government and law largely out of social inertia. For example, Orderic Vitalis, a historian born in 1075 and the son of a Norman knight, said that he learned French only as a second language. Anglo-Norman continued to be used by the Plantagenet kings until Edward I came to the throne.^[75] Over time the English language became more important even in the court, and the Normans were gradually assimilated, until, by the 14th century, both rulers and subjects regarded themselves as English and spoke the English language.^[76]

Despite the assimilation of the Normans, the distinction between ‘English’ and ‘French’ survived in official documents long after it had fallen out of common use, in particular in the legal phrase Presentment of Englishry (a rule by which a hundred had to prove an unidentified murdered body found on their soil to be that of an Englishman, rather than a Norman, if they wanted to avoid a fine). This law was abolished in 1340.^[77]

United Kingdom[edit]

Since the 18th century, England has been one part of a wider political entity covering all or part of the British Isles, which today is called the United Kingdom. Wales was annexed by England by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542, which incorporated Wales into the English state.^[78] A new British identity was subsequently developed when James VI of Scotland became James I of England as well, and expressed the desire to be known as the monarch of Britain.^[79]

In 1707, England formed a union with Scotland by passing an Act of Union in March 1707 that ratified the Treaty of Union. The Parliament of Scotland had previously passed its own Act of Union, so the Kingdom of Great Britain was born on 1 May 1707. In 1801, another Act of Union formed a union between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland, creating the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922, about two-thirds of the Irish population (those who lived in 26 of the 32 counties of Ireland), left the United Kingdom to form the Irish Free State. The remainder became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, although this name was not introduced until 1927, after some years in which the term «United Kingdom» had been little used.^{[citation needed]}

Throughout the history of the UK, the English have been dominant in population and in political weight. As a consequence, notions of ‘Englishness’ and ‘Britishness’ are often very similar. At the same time, after the Union of 1707, the English, along with the other peoples of the British Isles, have been encouraged to think of themselves as British rather than to identify themselves with the constituent nations.^[80]

Immigration and assimilation[edit]

England has been the destination of varied numbers of migrants at different periods from the 17th century onwards. While some members of these groups seek to practise a form of pluralism, attempting to maintain a separate ethnic identity, others have assimilated and intermarried with the English. Since Oliver Cromwell’s resettlement of the Jews in 1656, there have been waves of Jewish immigration from Russia in the 19th century and from Germany in the 20th.^[81]

After the French king Louis XIV declared Protestantism illegal in 1685 in the Edict of Fontainebleau, an estimated 50,000 Protestant Huguenots fled to England.^[82] Due to sustained and sometimes mass emigration of the Irish, current estimates indicate that around 6 million people in the UK have at least one grandparent born in the Republic of Ireland.^[83]

There has been a small black presence in England since the 16th century due to the slave trade,^[84] and a small Indian presence since at least the 17th century because of the East India Company^[85] and British Raj.^[84] Black and Asian populations have only grown throughout the UK generally, as immigration from the British Empire and the subsequent Commonwealth of Nations was encouraged due to labour shortages during post World War II rebuilding.^[86]
However, these groups are often still considered to be ethnic minorities and research has shown that black and Asian people in the UK are more likely to identify as British rather than with one of the state’s four constituent nations, including England.^[87]

A nationally representative survey published in June 2021 found that a majority of respondents thought that being English was not dependent on race. 77% of white respondents in England agreed that «Being English is open to people of different ethnic backgrounds who identify as English», whereas 14% were of the view that «Only people who are white count as truly English». Amongst ethnic minority respondents, the equivalent figures were 68% and 19%.^[88] Research has found that the proportion of people who consider being white to be a necessary component of Englishness has declined over time.^[89]

Current national and political identity[edit]

The 1990s witnessed a resurgence of English national identity.^[90] Survey data shows a rise in the number of people in England describing their national identity as English and a fall in the number describing themselves as British.^[91] Today, black and minority ethnic people of England still generally identify as British rather than English to a greater extent than their white counterparts;^[92] however, groups such as the Campaign for an English Parliament (CEP) suggest the emergence of a broader civic and multi-ethnic English nationhood.^[93] Scholars and journalists have noted a rise in English self-consciousness, with increased use of the English flag, particularly at football matches where the Union flag was previously more commonly flown by fans.^[94][95]

This perceived rise in English self-consciousness has generally been attributed to the devolution in the late 1990s of some powers to the Scottish Parliament and National Assembly for Wales.^[90] In policy areas for which the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have responsibility, the UK Parliament votes on laws that consequently only apply to England. Because the Westminster Parliament is composed of MPs from throughout the United Kingdom, this has given rise to the «West Lothian question», a reference to the situation in which MPs representing constituencies outside England can vote on matters affecting only England, but MPs cannot vote on the same matters in relation to the other parts of the UK.^[96] Consequently, groups such as the CEP have called for the creation of a devolved English Parliament, claiming that there is now a discriminatory democratic deficit against the English. The establishment of an English parliament has also been backed by a number of Scottish and Welsh nationalists.^[97][98] Writer Paul Johnson has suggested that like most dominant groups, the English have only demonstrated interest in their ethnic self-definition when they were feeling oppressed.^[99]

John Curtice argues that «In the early years of devolution…there was little sign» of an English backlash against devolution for Scotland and Wales, but that more recently survey data shows tentative signs of «a form of English nationalism…beginning to emerge among the general public».^[100] Michael Kenny, Richard English and Richard Hayton, meanwhile, argue that the resurgence in English nationalism predates devolution, being observable in the early 1990s, but that this resurgence does not necessarily have negative implications for the perception of the UK as a political union.^[101] Others question whether devolution has led to a rise in English national identity at all, arguing that survey data fails to portray the complex nature of national identities, with many people considering themselves both English and British.^[102]

Recent surveys of public opinion on the establishment of an English parliament have given widely varying conclusions. In the first five years of devolution for Scotland and Wales, support in England for the establishment of an English parliament was low at between 16 and 19%, according to successive British Social Attitudes Surveys.^[103] A report, also based on the British Social Attitudes Survey, published in December 2010 suggests that only 29% of people in England support the establishment of an English parliament, though this figure had risen from 17% in 2007.^[104]

One 2007 poll carried out for BBC Newsnight, however, found that 61 per cent would support such a parliament being established.^[105] Krishan Kumar notes that support for measures to ensure that only English MPs can vote on legislation that applies only to England is generally higher than that for the establishment of an English parliament, although support for both varies depending on the timing of the opinion poll and the wording of the question.^[106] Electoral support for English nationalist parties is also low, even though there is public support for many of the policies they espouse.^[107] The English Democrats gained just 64,826 votes in the 2010 UK general election, accounting for 0.3 per cent of all votes cast in England.^[108] Kumar argued in 2010 that «despite devolution and occasional bursts of English nationalism – more an expression of exasperation with the Scots or Northern Irish – the English remain on the whole satisfied with current constitutional arrangements».^[109]

English diaspora[edit]

Numbers of the English diaspora

Year	Country	Population	% of local population
2016	Australia	7,852,224	36.1[110]
2016	Canada	6,320,085	18.3[111][112]
2011	Scotland	459,486	8.68[113]
2016	United States[b]	23,835,787	7.4[114]
2018	New Zealand	72,204[c]–210,915[d]	4.49[115]

From the earliest times English people have left England to settle in other parts of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, but it is not possible to identify their numbers, as British censuses have historically not invited respondents to identify themselves as English.^{[116][failed verification]} However, the census does record place of birth, revealing that 8.08% of Scotland’s population,^[117] 3.66% of the population of Northern Ireland^[118] and 20% of the Welsh population were born in England.^[119] Similarly, the census of the Republic of Ireland does not collect information on ethnicity, but it does record that there are over 200,000 people living in Ireland who were born in England and Wales.^[120]

English ethnic descent and emigrant communities are found primarily in the Western World, and in some places, settled in significant numbers. Substantial populations descended from English colonists and immigrants exist in the United States, Canada, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand.^{[citation needed]}

United States[edit]

In the 2016 American Community Survey, English Americans were 7.4% of the United States population, behind the German Americans (13.9%) and Irish Americans (10.0%).^[114] However, demographers regard this as a serious undercount, as the index of inconsistency^{[clarification needed]} is high, and many, if not most, people from English stock have a tendency (since the introduction of a new ‘American’ category in the 2000 census) to identify as simply Americans^{[122][123][124][125]} or if of mixed European ancestry, identify with a more recent and differentiated ethnic group.^[126]

Prior to this, in the 2000 census, 24,509,692 Americans described their ancestry as wholly or partly English. In addition, 1,035,133 recorded British ancestry.^[127] This was a numerical decrease from the census in 1990 where 32,651,788 people or 13.1% of the population self-identified with English ancestry.^[128]

In 1980, over 49 million (49,598,035) Americans claimed English ancestry, at the time around 26.34% of the total population and largest reported group which, even today, would make them the largest ethnic group in the United States.^[129] Scots-Irish Americans are descendants of Lowland Scots and Northern English (specifically: County Durham, Cumberland, Northumberland and Westmorland) settlers who colonised Ireland during the Plantation of Ulster in the 17th century.

Americans of English heritage are often seen, and identify, as simply «American» due to the many historic cultural ties between England and the U.S. and their influence on the country’s population. Relative to ethnic groups of other European origins, this may be due to the early establishment of English settlements; as well as to non-English groups having emigrated in order to establish significant communities.^[130]

Canada[edit]

In the Canada 2016 Census, ‘English’ was the most common ethnic origin (ethnic origin refers to the ethnic or cultural group(s) to which the respondent’s ancestors belong^[131]) recorded by respondents; 6,320,085 people or 18.3% of the population self-identified themselves as wholly or partly English.^[111][112] On the other hand, people identifying as Canadian but not English may have previously identified as English before the option of identifying as Canadian was available.^[132]

Australia[edit]

From the beginning of the colonial era until the mid-20th century, the vast majority of settlers to Australia were from the British Isles, with the English being the dominant group. Among the leading ancestries, increases in Australian, Irish and German ancestries and decreases in English, Scottish and Welsh ancestries appear to reflect such shifts in perception or reporting. These reporting shifts at least partly resulted from changes in the design of the census question, in particular the introduction of a tick box format in 2001.^[133] English Australians have more often come from the south than the north of England.^[134]

Australians of English descent, are both the single largest ethnic group in Australia and the largest ‘ancestry’ identity in the Australian census.^[135] In the 2016 census, 7.8 million or 36.1% of the population identified as «English» or a combination including English, a numerical increase from 7.2 million over the 2011 census figure. The census also documented 907,572 residents or 3.9% of Australia as being born in England, and are the largest overseas-born population.^[110]

New Zealand[edit]

English ancestry is the largest single ancestry New Zealanders share. Several million New Zealanders are estimated to have some English ancestry^[136] From 1840, the English comprised the largest single group among New Zealand’s overseas-born, consistently being over 50 percent of the total population.^[137]
Despite this, after the early 1850s, the English-born slowly fell from being a majority of the colonial population. In the 1851 census, 50.5% of the total population were born in England, this proportion fell to 36.5% (1861) and 24.3% by 1881.^[137]

In the most recent Census in 2013, there were 215,589 English-born representing 21.5% of all overseas-born residents or 5 percent of the total population and is still the most-common birthplace outside New Zealand.^[138]

Argentina[edit]

English settlers arrived in Buenos Aires in 1806 (then a Spanish colony) in small numbers, mostly as businessmen, when Argentina was an emerging nation and the settlers were welcomed for the stability they brought to commercial life. As the 19th century progressed, more English families arrived, and many bought land to develop the potential of the Argentine pampas for the large-scale growing of crops. The English founded banks, developed the export trade in crops and animal products and imported the luxuries that the growing Argentine middle classes sought.^[139]

As well as those who went to Argentina as industrialists and major landowners, others went as railway engineers, civil engineers and to work in banking and commerce. Others went to become whalers, missionaries and simply to seek out a future. English families sent second and younger sons, or what were described as the black sheep of the family, to Argentina to make their fortunes in cattle and wheat. English settlers introduced football to Argentina. Some English families owned sugar plantations.^{[citation needed]}

Culture[edit]

The culture of England is sometimes difficult to separate clearly from the culture of the United Kingdom,^[140] so influential has English culture been on the cultures of the British Isles and, on the other hand, given the extent to which other cultures have influenced life in England.

Religion[edit]

The established religion of the realm is the Church of England, whose titular head is Charles III although the worldwide Anglican Communion is overseen by the General Synod of its bishops under the authority of Parliament. 26 of the church’s 42 bishops are Lords Spiritual, representing the church in the House of Lords. In 2010, the Church of England counted 25 million baptised members out of the 41 million Christians in Great Britain’s population of about 60 million;^[141][142] around the same time, it also claimed to baptise one in eight newborn children.^[143] Generally, anyone in England may marry or be buried at their local parish church, whether or not they have been baptised in the church.^[144] Actual attendance has declined steadily since 1890,^[145] with around one million, or 10% of the baptised population attending Sunday services on a regular basis (defined as once a month or more) and three million -roughly 15%- joining Christmas Eve and Christmas services.^[146][147]

Saint George is recognised as the patron saint of England, and the flag of England consists of his cross. Before Edward III, the patron saint was St Edmund; and St Alban is also honoured as England’s first martyr.
A survey carried out in the end of 2008 by Ipsos MORI on behalf of The Catholic Agency For Overseas Development found the population of England and Wales to be 47.0% affiliated with the Church of England, which is also the state church, 9.6% with the Roman Catholic Church and 8.7% were other Christians, mainly Free church Protestants and Eastern Orthodox Christians. 4.8% were Muslim, 3.4% were members of other religions, 5.3% were agnostics, 6.8% were atheists and 15.0% were not sure about their religious affiliation or refused to answer to the question.^[148]

Religious observance of St George’s Day (23 April) changes when it is too close to Easter. According to the Church of England’s calendar, when St George’s Day falls between Palm Sunday and the Second Sunday of Easter inclusive, it is moved to the Monday after the Second Sunday of Easter.^[149]

Language[edit]

English people traditionally speak the English language, a member of the West Germanic language family. The modern English language evolved from Middle English (the form of language in use by the English people from the 12th to the 15th century); Middle English was influenced lexically by Norman-French, Old French and Latin. In the Middle English period Latin was the language of administration and the nobility spoke Norman French. Middle English was itself derived from the Old English of the Anglo-Saxon period; in the Northern and Eastern parts of England the language of Danish settlers had influenced the language, a fact still evident in Northern English dialects.

There were once many different dialects of modern English in England, which were recorded in projects such as the English Dialect Dictionary (late 19th century) and the Survey of English Dialects (mid 20th century), but many of these have passed out of common usage as Standard English has become more widespread through education, the media and socio-economic pressures.^[150]

Cornish, a Celtic language, is one of three existing Brittonic languages; its usage has been revived in Cornwall. Historically, another Brittonic Celtic language, Cumbric, was spoken in Cumbria in North West England, but it died out in the 11th century although traces of it can still be found in the Cumbrian dialect. Early Modern English began in the late 15th century with the introduction of the printing press to London and the Great Vowel Shift. Through the worldwide influence of the British Empire, English spread around the world from the 17th to mid-20th centuries. Through newspapers, books, the telegraph, the telephone, phonograph records, radio, satellite television, broadcasters (such as the BBC) and the Internet, as well as the emergence of the United States as a global superpower, Modern English has become the international language of business, science, communication, sports, aviation, and diplomacy.

Literature[edit]

English literature begins with Anglo-Saxon literature, which was written in Old English and produced epic works such as Beowulf and the fragmentary The Battle of Maldon, The Seafarer and The Wanderer. For many years, Latin and French were the preferred literary languages of England, but in the medieval period there was a flourishing of literature in Middle English; Geoffrey Chaucer is the most famous writer of this period.

The Elizabethan era is sometimes described as the golden age of English literature with writers such as William Shakespeare, Thomas Nashe, Edmund Spenser, Sir Philip Sidney, Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson.

Other famous English writers include Jane Austen, Arnold Bennett, Rupert Brooke, Agatha Christie, Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, A. E. Housman, George Orwell and the Lake Poets.

Due to the expansion of English into a world language during the British Empire, literature is now written in English across the world.^{[citation needed]}

In 2003 the BBC carried out a UK survey entitled The Big Read in order to find the «nation’s best-loved novel» of all time, with works by English novelists J. R. R. Tolkien, Jane Austen, Philip Pullman, Douglas Adams and J. K. Rowling making up the top five on the list.^[151]

See also[edit]

Language:

Diaspora:

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

Citations[edit]

Sources[edit]

Diaspora

External links[edit]

• Quotations related to English people at Wikiquote

The English people (from the adjective in _an. Englisc) are a nation and ethnic group native to England who predominantly speak English. The English identity as a people is of early origin, when they were known in Old English as the «Anglecynn». The largest single population of English people reside in England, a constituent country of the United Kingdom. They are believed to be a mixture of different groups that have settled in what became England, such as the Brythons (including Romano-Britons), Anglo-Saxons, Danish Vikings, BretonsBrittany and the Angevins: Province and Empire, 1158-1203 [http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=NmXW4heYJGAC&pg=PA11&lpg=PA11&dq=bretons+southern+england+normans&source=web&ots=56IbqcCQvT&sig=6lAlnfoKh3gAngFXMRhuUR3nU4g&hl=en] ] , and Normans. More recent migrations to England include peoples from a variety of different regions of Great Britain and Ireland and many other countries, mostly from Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and Commonwealth countries. Some of these more recent migrants have assumed a solely British or English identity, and others have developed dual or hyphenated identities. [«Ethnic minorities feel strong sense of identity with Britain, report reveals» Maxine Frith «The Independent» 8 January 2004. [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/ethnic-minorities-feel-strong-sense-of-identity-with-britain-report-reveals-578503.html] ] [Hussain, Asifa and Millar, William Lockley (2006) «Multicultural Nationalism» Oxford university Press p149-150 [http://books.google.com/books?id=d2Hv2QMMVrQC&pg=PA149&lpg=PA149&dq=English+identity+Pakistani+British&source=web&ots=vK18u7nyNp&sig=mbDfLkCfSSRAXuOIyKbDnTcadJs&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=9&ct=result] ] [CONDOR Susan; GIBSON Stephen; ABELL Jackie. (2006) «English identity and ethnic diversity in the context of UK constitutional change» «Ethnicities» 6:123-158 [http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=17946417 abstract] ] [«Asian recruits boost England fan army» by Dennis Campbell, «Te Guardian» 18 June 2006. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2006/jun/18/worldcup2006.sport] ] [«National Identity and Community in England» (2006) «Institute of Governance» Briefing No.7. [http://www.institute-of-governance.org/forum/Leverhulme/briefing_pdfs/IoG_Briefing_07.pdf] ]

Definitions

Writing about the English people may be complicated because England has historically been settled by waves of invaders and immigrants at different periods in history, and has also spread its influence, and its populace, worldwide. Hence, the term can refer to the English ethnic group that shares a belief in their common descent from a mass migration of Germanic peoples (usually referred to as Anglo-Saxons) during the sub-Roman period. Historian Catherine Hills describes what she calls the «national origin myth» of the English::The arrival of the Anglo-Saxons … is still perceived as an important and interesting event because it is believed to have been a key factor in the identity of the present inhabitants of the British Isles, involving migration on such a scale as to permanently change the population of south-east Britain, and making the English a distinct and different people from the Celtic Irish, Welsh and Scots…..this is an example of a national origin myth… and shows why there are seldom simple answers to questions about origins. [Hills, Catherine (2003) «The Origins of the English» p. 18. Duckworth Debates in Archaeology. Duckworth. London. ISBN 0 7156 3191 8]

English people can be viewed in a variety of different ways, but the broadest concept comprises anyone who considers themselves English and are considered English by most other people.

English nationality

Although there is no longer any official definition of English nationality, the term «the English people» can be used to discuss the English as a «nation», using the «OED»‘s definition of «nation» as a group united by factors that include «language, culture, history, or occupation of the same territory», rather than ancestral ties alone. [«Nation», sense 1. «The Oxford English Dictionary», 2nd edtn., 1989′.]

The concept of an ‘English nation’ is older than that of the ‘British nation’ and the 1990s witnessed a revival in English self-consciousness.Krishan Kumar, «The Rise of English National Identity» (Cambridge University Press, 1997), pp. 262-290.] This is linked to the expressions of national self-awareness of the other British nations of Wales and Scotland — which take their most solid form in the new devolved political arrangements within the United Kingdom — and the waning of a shared British national identity as the British Empire fades into history. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/uk/596703.stm English nationalism ‘threat to UK’] , BBC, Sunday, 9 January, 2000] [ [http://www.economist.com/world/britain/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10064563 The English question Handle with care] , the Economist 1 November 2007] Krishan Kumar. [http://assets.cambridge.org/97805217/71887/sample/9780521771887ws.pdf The Making of English National Identity] , Cambridge University Press, 2003]

While expressions of English national identity can involve beliefs in common descent, most political English nationalists do not consider Englishness to be a form of kinship. For example, the English Democrats Party states that «We do not claim Englishness to be purely ethnic or purely cultural, but it is a complex mix of the two. We firmly believe Englishness is a state of mind», [ [http://www.englishdemocrats.org.uk/faq.php English Democrats FAQ] ] while the Campaign for an English Parliament says, «The people of England includes everyone who considers this ancient land to be their home and future regardless of ethnicity, race, religion or culture». [ [http://www.thecep.org.uk/introduction.shtml ‘Introduction’, «The Campaign for an English Parliament»] ] In an article for «The Guardian», novelist Andrea Levy (born in London to Jamaican parents) calls England a separate country «without any doubt» and asserts that she is «English. Born and bred, as the saying goes. (As far as I can remember, it is born and bred and not born-and-bred-with-a-very-long-line-of-white-ancestors-directly-descended-from-Anglo-Saxons.)» Arguing that «England has never been an exclusive club, but rather a hybrid nation», she writes that «Englishness must never be allowed to attach itself to ethnicity. The majority of English people are white, but some are not … Let England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland be nations that are plural and inclusive.» [Andrea Levy, [http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/politicsphilosophyandsociety/story/0,6000,138282,00.html «This is my England»] , «The Guardian», February 19, 2000.]

However, this use of the word «English» is complicated by the fact that most non-white people in England identify as British rather than English. In their 2004 Annual Population Survey, the Office of National Statistics compared the «ethnic» identities of British people with their perceived «national» identity. They found that while 58% of white people described their nationality as «English», the vast majority of non-white people called themselves «British». For example, «78 per cent of Bangladeshis said they were British, while only 5 per cent said they were English, Scottish or Welsh», and the largest percentage of non-whites to identify as English were the people who described their ethnicity as «Mixed» (37%). [ [http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=459 ‘Identity’, «National Statistics», 21 Feb, 2006] ]

English origins

It is difficult to clearly define the origins of the English people, owing to the close interactions between the English and their neighbours in the British Isles, and the waves of immigration that have added to England’s population at different periods. The conventional view of English origins is that the English are primarily descended from the Anglo-Saxons and other Germanic tribes that migrated to Great Britain following the end of the Roman occupation of Britain, with assimilation of later migrants such as the Vikings and Normans. This version of history is considered by some historians and geneticists as simplistic or even incorrect (see below). However, the notion of the Anglo-Saxon English has traditionally been important in defining English identity and distinguishing the English from their Celtic neighbours, such as the Scots, Welsh and Irish. Furthermore, the idea of an English Anglo-Saxon origin is important to those who see differences between people with long-standing English ancestry and people whose ancestors arrived much more recently, an attitude expressed succinctly by a character in Sarah Kane’s play «Blasted» who boasts «I’m not an import», contrasting himself with the children of immigrants: «they have their kids, call them English, they’re not English, born in England don’t make you English». [Sarah Kane, «Complete Plays» (19**), p. 41.]

A popular interest in English identity is evident in the recent reporting of scientific and sociological investigations of the English, in which their complex results are heavily simplified. In 2002, the BBC used the headline «English and Welsh are races apart» to report a genetic survey of test subjects from market towns in England and Wales, [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/2076470.stm «English and Welsh are Races Apart»] , «BBC», 30 June, 2002] while in September 2006, «The Sunday Times» reported that a survey of first names and surnames in the UK had identified Ripley as «the ‘most English’ place in England with 88.58% of residents having an English ethnic background». [» [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article634244.ece Found: Migrants with the Mostest] «, Robert Winnett and Holly Watt, «The Sunday Times», 10 June, 2006] The «Daily Mail» printed an article with the headline «We’re all Germans! (and we have been for 1,600 years)». [Julie Wheldon. [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=396406&in_page_id=1770&in_page_id=1770&expand=true#StartComments We’re all Germans! (and we have been for 1,600 years)] , The Daily Mail, 19 July 2006] In all these cases, the conclusions of these studies have been exaggerated or misinterpreted, with the language of race being employed by the journalists. [The BBC article claims a 50-100% «wipeout» of «indigenous British» by Anglo-Saxon «invaders», while the original article (» [http://mbe.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/19/7/1008 Y Chromosome Evidence for Anglo-Saxon Mass Migration] » Michael E. Weale «et al.», in «Molecular Biology and Evolution» 19 [2002] ) claims only a 50-100% «contribution» of «Anglo-Saxons» to the current Central English «male» population, with samples deriving only from central England; the conclusions of this study have been questioned in Cristian Capelli, «et al», » [http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6VRT-48PV5SH-12&_coverDate=05%2F27%2F2003&_alid=339895807&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_qd=1&_cdi=6243&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000049116&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=949111&md5=9edf5ce1c39d4139af4c01733282fa82 A Y Chromosome Census of the British Isles] » «Current Biology», 13 (2003). The «Times» article reports Richard Webber’s «OriginsInfo» database, which does not use the term ‘ethnic’ and acknowledges that its conclusions are unsafe for many groups; see [http://www.originsinfo.com/Features.aspx «Investigating Customers Origins»] , «OriginsInfo».] In addition, several recent books, including those of Stephen Oppenheimer and Brian Sykes, have argued that the recent genetic studies in fact do not show a clear dividing line between the English and their ‘Celtic’ neighbours, but that there is a gradual clinal change from west (primarily Iberian origin) to east (primarily Iberian and Balkan origin). They suggest that the majority of the ancestors of British peoples were the original paleolithic settlers of Great Britain, and that the differences that exist between the east and west coasts of Great Britain though not large, are deep in prehistory, mostly originating in the upper paleolithic and mesolithic (15,000-7,000 years ago).

It is unclear how many people in the UK consider themselves English. In the 2001 UK census, respondents were invited to state their ethnicity, but while there were tick boxes for ‘Irish’ and for ‘Scottish’, there were none for ‘English’ or ‘Welsh’, who were subsumed into the general heading ‘White British’. [ [http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/grosweb/grosweb.nsf/pages/file5/$file/supporting_information.pdf Scotland’s Census 2001: Supporting Information] (PDF; see p. 43); see also [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2001/04/23/ncen23.xml Philip Johnston, «Tory MP leads English protest over census», «Daily Telegraph» 15 June, 2006] .] Following complaints about this, the 2011 census will «allow respondents to record their English, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish, Irish or other identity.» [ [http://www.statistics.gov.uk/census/2011Census/CollectingtheInfo/questionnairedevelopment.asp ‘Developing the Questionnaires’, «National Statistics Office»] .]

A further complication is England’s dominant position within the United Kingdom, which has resulted in the terms ‘English’ and ‘British’ often being used interchangeably. [In «The Isles», Norman Davies lists numerous examples in history books of ‘British’ being used to mean ‘English’ and vice versa. [page reference needed] ] Relatedly, studies of people with English ancestry have shown that they tend not to regard themselves as an ‘ethnic group’, even when they live in other countries. Patricia Greenhill studied people in Canada with English heritage, and found that they did not think of themselves as «ethnic», but rather as «normal» or «mainstream», an attitude Greenhill attributes to the cultural dominance of the English in Canada. [Pauline Greenhill, «Ethnicity in the Mainstream: Three Studies of English Canadian Culture in Ontario» (McGill-Queens, 1994) — page reference needed] Writer Paul Johnson has suggested that like most dominant groups, the English have only demonstrated interest in their ethnic self-definition when they were feeling oppressed. [Quoted by Kumar, «Making» [page reference needed] ]

History of English ethnicity

Overview

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term «English» is not used to refer to the earliest inhabitants of England — Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers, Celtic Britons, and Roman colonists. This is because up to and during the Roman occupation of Britain, the region now called England was not a distinct country; all the native inhabitants of Britain spoke Brythonic languages and were regarded as Britons (or Brythons) divided into many tribes. The word «English» refers to a heritage that began with the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons in the 5th century, who settled lands already inhabited by Romano-British tribes. That heritage then comes to include later arrivals, including Scandinavians, Normans, as well as those Romano-Britons who still lived in England.cite book
last=Simpson
first=John
coauthors=Weiner, Edmund
title=The Oxford English Dictionary: second edition
publisher=Clarendon Press
date=1989-03-30
location=Oxford
url=http://www.oed.com
pages=English
isbn=0198611862 ]

ub-Roman Britain and Anglo-Saxon England

The first people to be called ‘English’ were the Anglo-Saxons, a group of closely related Germanic tribes that migrated to England from southern Denmark and northern Germany in the 5th century AD after the Romans retreated from Britain. The Anglo-Saxons gave their name to England (Angle-land) and to the English people.

However, the Anglo-Saxons arrived in a land that was already populated by people commonly referred to as the ‘Romano-British’, the descendants of the native Brythonic-speaking population that lived in the area of Britain under Roman rule during the 1st-5th centuries AD. Furthermore, the multi-ethnic nature of the Roman Empire meant that small numbers of other peoples may have also been present in England before the Anglo-Saxons arrived: for example, archaeological discoveries suggest that North Africans may have had a limited presence. [ [http://www.bbc.co.uk/tyne/roots/2003/10/blackhistoryromans.shtml The Black Romans] : BBC culture website. Retrieved 21 July 2006.] [ [http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/B/blackhistorymap/arch.html The archaeology of black Britain] : Channel 4 history website. Retrieved 21 July 2006.]

The exact nature of the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons and their relationship with the Romano-British is a matter of debate. Traditionally, it was believed that a mass invasion by various Anglo-Saxon tribes largely displaced the indigenous British population in southern and eastern Great Britain (modern day England with the exception of Cornwall). This was supported by the writings of Gildas, the only contemporary historical account of the period, describing slaughter and starvation of native Britons by invading peoples («aduentus Saxonum»). [ [http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/gildas_02_ruin_of_britain.htm Gildas, The Ruin of Britain &c. (1899). pp. 4-252. The Ruin of Britain ] ] Added to this was the fact that the English language contains no more than a handful of words borrowed from Brythonic sources (although the names of some towns, cities, rivers etc do have Brythonic or pre-Brythonic origins, becoming more frequent towards the west of Britain). [ [http://www.yorksj.ac.uk/dialect/celtpn.htm celtpn ] ] However, this view has been re-evaluated by some archaeologists and historians in recent times, who claim to only be finding minimal evidence for mass displacement: archaeologist Francis Pryor has stated that he «can’t see any evidence for «bona fide» mass migrations after the Neolithic.» [«Britain BC: Life in Britain and Ireland before the Romans» by Francis Pryor, p. 122. Harper Perennial. ISBN 0-00-712693-X.] Historian Malcolm Todd writes:»It is much more likely that a large proportion of the British population remained in place and was progressively dominated by a Germanic aristocracy, in some cases marrying into it and leaving Celtic names in the, admittedly very dubious, early lists of Anglo-Saxon dynasties. But how we identify the surviving Britons in areas of predominantly Anglo-Saxon settlement, either archaeologically or linguistically, is still one of the deepest problems of early English history.» [» [http://www.intellectbooks.com/nation/html/anglos.htm Anglo-Saxon Origins: The Reality of the Myth] » by Malcolm Todd. Retrieved 1 October 2006.]

Geneticists have explored the relationship between Anglo-Saxons and Britons by studying the Y-chromosomes of men in present day English towns. In 2002, a study by Weale «et al» found genetic differences between test subjects from market towns in central England and Wales, and that the English subjects were, on average closer genetically to the Frisians of the Netherlands than they were to their Welsh neighbours. This study hypothesised that an Anglo-Saxon invasion had replaced 50-100% of «indigenous» men. A 2006 study led by Mark Thomas used computer simulations to find a possible reason for the divergence between these finds and the archaeological record, which does not show evidence of mass immigration. They postulate that a small Anglo-Saxon elite could have operated an apartheid-like system, preventing intermarriage between male Britons and female Anglo-Saxons (therefore increasing the proportion of «Anglo-Saxon» Y chromosomes in certain regions), depriving indigenous Britons of essential resources (leading to higher population growth rates for the elite), and asserting political dominance. Eventually the dominant group would have grown too large to be an effective elite, and the «indigenous» group would have been assimilated. [Mark G. Thomas, «et al», [http://www.pubs.royalsoc.ac.uk/media/proceedings_b/papers/RSPB20063627.pdf «Evidence for an Apartheid-like Social Structure in Anglo-Saxon England», «Proceedings of the Royal Society B», 2006.] . For a summary, see » [http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2006/07/19/anglo-saxons.html ‘Apartheid’ society gave edge to Anglo-Saxons, study suggests] » , «CBC», July 19, 2006.] Other geneticists tell a different story. A more comprehensive follow-up study to Weale «et al» in 2003 by Christian Capelli «et al», which analyzed Y chromosome samples across a wider range of the British Isles, complicated the picture and indicated that different parts of England may have received different levels of intrusion: they theorise that while central and eastern England experienced a high level of intrusion from continental Europe (the study could not significantly distinguish Germans of Schleswig-Holstein from Danes or Frisians although Frisians were slightly closer to the British samples), southern and western England did not, and the population there appears to be largely descended from the indigenous Britons (the scientists acknowledge that this conclusion is «startling»). The 2003 study also noted that the transition between England and Wales is more gradual than the earlier study suggested. » [http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6VRT-48PV5SH-12&_coverDate=05%2F27%2F2003&_alid=339895807&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_qd=1&_cdi=6243&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000049116&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=949111&md5=9edf5ce1c39d4139af4c01733282fa82 A Y Chromosome Census of the British Isles] «; Cristian Capelli, Nicola Redhead, Julia K. Abernethy, Fiona Gratrix, James F. Wilson, Torolf Moen, Tor Hervig, Martin Richards, Michael P. H. Stumpf, Peter A. Underhill, Paul Bradshaw, Alom Shaha, Mark G. Thomas, Neal Bradman, and David B. Goldstein «Current Biology», Volume 13, Issue 11, Pages 979-984 (2003). Retrieved 6 December 2005.]

In «The Origins of the British», Stephen Oppenheimer concludes, based on a meta-analysis of the data collected during both the 2002 and 2003 studies, and data from other sources, that the majority of English ancestry is from the original hunter-gatherer populations that settled Britain between 15,000 and 7,500 years ago, after the last Ice Age. [cite journal |last=Oppenheimer |first=Stephen |authorlink=Stephen Oppenheimer|coauthors= |year=2006 |month=October |title=Myths of British Ancestry |journal=Prospect Magazine |volume= |issue=127 |pages= |id= |url=http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=7817 |accessdate=2007-07-30 |quote=] He also suggests that the relatively high levels of northern European Y chromosomes (mainly I1a and R1a, «Anglo-Saxon» and «Viking» markers) detected in eastern and central Great Britain (both Scotland and England) may have a far older signature than they would have if they had been introduced during an «Anglo-Saxon» invasion — they appear to have been in Great Britain much longer. According to Oppenheimer, there may have been ongoing migrations between North Sea regions (eastern Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Northwestern Germany) as far back as the palaeolithic, and it is not conclusive that all Y chromosome types usually associated with Anglo-Saxon invasions actually derive from colonisation during this period, since many may have come to Great Britain during the initial colonisation of the land after the Last Glacial Maximum. Thus he theorises that there is no necessity to postulate either a mass «Anglo-Saxon» migration or an «apartheid-like» system to explain the differences between the far east and far west of Great Britain, the differences in Y chromosome frequencies vary gradually and are not clearly defined, and that they have always been there. Oppenheimer also postulates that the arrival of Germanic languages in England may be considerably earlier than previously thought, and that both mainland and English Belgae (from Gaul) may have been Germanic-speaking peoples and represented closely related ethnic groups (or a single cross channel ethnic group). [Oppenheimer 2006, pp268–307.] Oxford geneticist Bryan Sykes, like Oppenheimer, has argued from DNA evidence that English genetic heritage is derived mainly from the Iberian Peninsula; according to him, the Anglo-Saxons played a rather insignificant role in English genetic composition. [cite book |title=Saxons, Vikings, and Celts: The Genetic Roots of Britain and Ireland |author=Bryan Sykes |year=2006 |publisher=W.W. Norton & Co. |id=ISBN-13:978-0-393-06268-7]

Danish Viking raids and permanent settlement

From about AD 800 waves of Danish Viking assaults on the coastlines of the British Isles were gradually followed by a succession of Danish settlers in England. At first, the Vikings were very much considered a separate people from the English. This separation was enshrined when Alfred the Great signed the Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum to establish the Danelaw, a division of England between English and Danish rule, with the Danes occupying northern and eastern England. [«The Age of Athelstan» by Paul Hill (2004), Tempus Publishing. ISBN 0-7524-2566-8] However, Alfred’s successors subsequently won military victories against the Danes, incorporating much of the Danelaw into the nascent kingdom of England. Danish invasions continued into the 11th century, and there were both English and Danish kings in the period following the unification of England (for example, Ethelred the Unready was English but Canute the Great was Danish).

Gradually, the Danes in England came to be seen as ‘English’. They had a noticeable impact on the English language: many English words, such as «dream», «take», «they» and «them» are of Old Norse origin, [» [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?l=d&p=18 Online Etymology Dictionary] » by Douglas Harper (2001), [http://www.etymonline.com/sources.php List of sources used] . Retrieved 10 July 2006.] and place names that end in «-thwaite» and «-by» are Scandinavian in origin. [«The Adventure of English», Melvyn Bragg, 2003. Pg 22]

The unification of England

The English population was not politically unified until the 10th century. Before then, it consisted of a number of petty kingdoms which gradually coalesced into a Heptarchy of seven powerful states, the most powerful of which were Mercia and Wessex. The English nation state began to form when the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms united against Danish Viking invasions, which began around 800 AD. Over the following century and a half England was for the most part a politically unified entity, and remained permanently so after 959.Fact|date=August 2007

The nation of England was formed in 937 by Athelstan of Wessex after the Battle of Brunanburh, [» [http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/athelstan.shtml Athelstan (c.895 — 939)] «: Historic Figures: [http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ BBC — History] . Retrieved 30 October 2006.] [» [http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A3483029 The Battle of Brunanburh, 937AD] » by h2g2, BBC website. Retrieved 30 October 2006.] as Wessex grew from a relatively small kingdom in the South West to become the founder of the Kingdom of the English, incorporating all Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and the Danelaw. A. L. Rowse, «The Story of Britain», Artus 1979 ISBN 0-297-83311-1 ]

Norman England and Angevin succession

The Norman Conquest of 1066 brought Anglo-Saxon and Danish rule of England to an end, as the new Norman elite almost universally replaced the Anglo-Saxon aristocracy and church leaders. After the conquest, the term «English people» normally included all natives of England, whether they were of Anglo-Saxon, Scandinavian or Celtic ancestry, to distinguish them from the Norman invaders, who were regarded as «Norman» even if born in England, for a generation or two after the Conquest. [«OED», 2nd edition, s.v. ‘English’.] The Norman dynasty ruled England for 87 years until the death of King Stephen in 1154, when the succession passed to Henry II, House of Plantagenet (based in France), and England became part of the Angevin Empire until 1399.

Various contemporary sources suggest that within fifty years of the invasion most of the Normans outside the royal court had switched to English, with Anglo-Norman remaining the prestige language of government and law largely out of social inertia. For example, Orderic Vitalis, a historian born in 1075 and the son of a Norman knight, said that he learned French only as a second language. Anglo-Norman continued to be used by the Plantagenet kings until Edward I came to the throne. [ [http://www.heritage-history.com/www/heritage.php?Dir=eras&FileName=britain_3.php England—Plantagenet Kings] ] Over time the English language became more important even in the court, and the Normans were gradually assimilated into the English people, until, by the 14th Century, both rulers and subjects regarded themselves as English and spoke the English language. [ [http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/lang_gallery_04.shtml BBC — The Resurgence of English 1200 — 1400] ]

Despite the assimilation of the Normans, the distinction between ‘English’ and ‘French’ survived in official documents long after it had fallen out of common use, in particular in the legal phrase «Presentment of Englishry» (a rule by which a hundred had to prove an unidentified murdered body found on their soil to be that of an Englishman, rather than a Norman, if they wanted to avoid a fine). This law was abolished in 1340. [OED, s.v. ‘Englishry’.]

The English and Britain

Since the 16th century, England has been one part of a wider political entity covering all or part of the British Isles, which is today called the United Kingdom. Wales was annexed by England by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542, which incorporated Wales into the English state. [ [http://www.iol.ie/~dluby/history.htm Liberation of Ireland] : Ireland on the Net Website. Retrieved 23 June 2006.] A new British identity was subsequently developed when James VI of Scotland became James I of England as well and expressed the desire to be known as the monarch of Britain. [«A History of Britain: The British Wars 1603-1776» by Simon Schama, BBC Worldwide. ISBN 0-563-53747-7.] In 1707, England formed a union with Scotland by the passage of the Acts of Union 1707 in both the Scottish and English parliaments, creating the Kingdom of Great Britain. In 1801 another Act of Union formed a union between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland creating the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. About two thirds of Irish population, (those who lived in 26 of the 32 counties of Ireland) left the United Kingdom in 1922 to form the Irish Free State, and the remainder became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Throughout the history of the UK, the English have been dominant in terms of population and political weight. As a consequence, notions of ‘Englishness’ and ‘Britishness’ are often very similar. At the same time, after the 1707 Union, the English, along with the other peoples of the British Isles, have been encouraged to think of themselves as British rather than identifying themselves by the smaller constituent nations. [«The English», Jeremy Paxman 1998 ]

Recent migration

:»See also: Historical immigration to Great Britain, Immigration to the United Kingdom (1922-present day), Demographics of England, British Asian, Black British.

Although England has not been successfully conquered since the Norman conquest or extensively settled since prior to that, it has been the destination of varied numbers of migrants at different periods from the seventeenth century. While some members of these groups maintain a separate ethnic identity, others have assimilated and intermarried with the English. Since Oliver Cromwell’s resettlement of the Jews in 1656, there have been waves of Jewish immigration from Russia in the nineteenth century and from Germany in the twentieth. [ [http://www.ejpress.org/digest/in_depth/on_anglo_jewry/ EJP looks back on 350 years of history of Jews in the UK] : European Jewish Press. Retrieved 21 July 2006.] After the French king Louis XIV declared Protestantism illegal in 1685 with the Edict of Fontainebleau, an estimated 50,000 Protestant Huguenots fled to England. [ [http://www.walden.org/Institute/thoreau/life/Geneology/Guillet-Thoreau.htm Meredith on the Guillet-Thoreau Genealogy] ] Due to sustained and sometimes mass emigration from Ireland, current estimates indicate that around 6 million people in the UK have at least one grandparent born in the Republic of Ireland. [» [http://www.guardian.co.uk/britain/article/0,,1871753,00.html More Britons applying for Irish passports] » by Owen Bowcott The Guardian, 13 September 2006. Retrieved 9 January 2006.]

There has been a black presence in England since at least the 16th century due to the slave trade and an Indian presence since the mid 19th century because of the British Raj. [» [http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/blackhistory/ Black Presence] «, Asian and Black History in Britain, 1500-1850: UK government website. Retrieved 21 July 2006.] Black and Asian proportions have grown in England as immigration from the British Empire and the subsequent Commonwealth of Nations was encouraged due to labour shortages during post-war rebuilding. [ [http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/citizenship/brave_new_world/immigration.htm Postwar immigration] The National Archives Accessed October 2006] While one result of this immigration has been incidents of racial tension and/or hatred, such as the Brixton and Bradford riots, there has also been considerable intermarriage; the 2001 census recorded that 1.31% of England’s population call themselves «Mixed», [ [http://www.statistics.gov.uk/STATBASE/ssdataset.asp?vlnk=7666 Resident population: by ethnic group, 2001: Regional Trends 38] , «National Statistics».] and «The Sunday Times» reported in 2007 that mixed race people are likely to be the largest ethnic minority in the UK by 2020. [Jack Grimston, «Mixed-race Britons to become biggest minority», «The Sunday Times», 21 January, 2007.]

Resurgent English nationalism

The late 1990s saw a resurgence of English national identity, spurred by devolution in the 1990s of some powers to the Scottish Parliament, National Assembly for Wales and the Northern Ireland Assembly. As England lacks its own devolved parliament, its laws are created only in the UK parliament, giving rise to the «West Lothian question», a hypothetical situation in which a law affecting only England could be voted for or against by a Scottish MP. [ [http://www.thecep.org.uk/introduction.shtml An English Parliament…] ] Consequently, groups such as the Campaign for an English Parliament are calling for the creation of a devolved English Parliament, claiming that there is now a discriminative democratic deficit against the English. A rise in English self-consciousness has resulted, with increased use of the English flag. [Krishan Kumar, «The Rise of English National Identity» (Cambridge University Press, 1997), pp. 262-290.]

The English nationalist movement has had mixed results. Opinion polls show support for a devolved English parliament from about two thirds of the residents of England as well as support from both Welsh and Scottish nationalists. [ [http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianpolitics/story/0,,1991145,00.html Poll shows support for English parliament] The Guardian, 16 January 2007] [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/6081130.stm Fresh call for English Parliament] BBC 24 October 2006.] [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/6197143.stm Welsh nod for English Parliament] BBC 20 December 2006] Conversely, the English Democrats gained just 14,506 votes in the 2005 UK general election.

Geographic distribution

From the earliest times English people have left England to settle in other parts of the British Isles, but it is not possible to identify their numbers, as British censuses have historically not invited respondents to identify themselves as English. [ [http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/grosweb/grosweb.nsf/pages/file5/$file/supporting_information.pdf Scotland’s Census 2001: Supporting Information] (PDF; see p. 43)] However, the census does record place of birth, revealing that 8.08% of Scotland’s population, [ [http://www.scrol.gov.uk/scrol/browser/profile.jsp Scottish Census Results Online Browser] , accessed November 16, 2007.] 3.66% of the population of Northern Ireland [ [http://www.nisranew.nisra.gov.uk/census/pdf/Key%20Statistics%20ReportTables.pdf Key Statistics Report] , p. 10.] and 20% of the Welsh population were born in England. [ [http://www.statistics.gov.uk/CCI/nugget.asp?ID=445 Country of Birth: Proportion Born in Wales Falling] , «National Statistics», 8 January, 2004.] Similarly, the census of the Republic of Ireland does not collect information on ethnicity, but it does record that there are over 200,000 people living in Ireland who were born in England and Wales. [http://www.cso.ie/census/documents/PDR%202006%20Tables%2019-30.pdf]

[
thumb|150px|right|Map_showing_the_population_density_of_United States citizens who claim some English ancestry in the census. Dark red and brown colours indicate a higher density: highest in the northeast as well as Utah and surrounding areas. (see also Maps of American ancestries).]

English diaspora

English emigrant and ethnic descent communities are found across the world, and in some places, settled in significant numbers. Substantial populations descended from English colonists and immigrants exist in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. In each of these countries, the English formed the bulk of the original settler populations.

In the 2000 United States Census, 24,509,692 Americans described their ancestry as wholly or partly English. In addition, the 1,035,133 who recorded British ancestry and the 20,188,305 who simply called themselves ‘American’ doubtless contain many people with English ancestry. Germans are currently form the largest self-reported ancestry group in the United States, accounting for 49 million people. [ [http://www.census.gov/population/www/cen2000/tablist.html US Census 2000 data] , table PHC-T-43.]

In the 2006 Canadian Census, ‘English’ was the most common ethnic origin recorded by respondents; 6,570,015 people described themselves as wholly or partly English, 16% of the population. [Staff. [http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census06/data/highlights/ethnic/pages/Page.cfm?Lang=E&Geo=PR&Code=01&Table=2&Data=Count&StartRec=1&Sort=7&Display=All Ethnic origins, 2006 counts, for Canada, provinces and territories — 20% sample data] , «Statistics Canada», 2006.] On the other hand people identifying as Canadian but not English may often have ancestors who did identify as English. [ According to [http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census06/analysis/ethnicorigin/pdf/97-562-XIE2006001.pdf «Canada’s Ethnocultural Mosaic, 2006 Census»] , (p.7) «…the presence of the Canadian example has led to an increase in Canadian being reported and has had an impact on the counts of other groups, especially for French, English, Irish and Scottish. People who previously reported these origins in the census had the tendency to now report Canadian.» ] In Australia, the 2006 Australian Census recorded 6,298,945 people who described their ancestry as ‘English’. 1,425,559 of these people recorded that both their parents were born overseas.

Other countries with significant numbers of people of English ancestry or ethnic origin include New Zealand, South Africa, Chile, and Argentina.

Since the 1980s there have been increasingly large numbers of English people, estimated at over 3 million, permanently or semi-permanently living in Spain and France, drawn there by the climate and cheaper house prices. cite web |url=http://www.iese.edu/en/files/6_18868.pdf |title=British People in Spain: An X-ray |accessdate=2007-04-25 |last= |first= |authorlink= |coauthors= |month=April | year=2007 |year= |month= |format= |work= |publisher=University of Navarra |pages= |language= |archiveurl= |archivedate= |quote= This source does not differentiate between British and English residents so the exact number of English people is unknown. ] [cite news |first=Richard|last=Ford |authorlink= |author= |coauthors= |title=Thousands more Britons join the exodus to live and work abroad|url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1680430.ece |format= |work= |publisher=The Times |id= |pages= |page= |date=2007-04-20 |accessdate=2007-04-25 |language= |quote= Article talks about Britain rather than England so precise number of English involved is not clear.] cite news |first=Dominic |last=Casciani |authorlink= |author= |coauthors= |title=5.5m Britons ‘opt to live abroad’ |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6210358.stm |format= |work= |publisher=BBC News |id= |pages= |page= |date=2006-12-11|accessdate=2007-05-25 |language= |quote= Although this talks of numbers of British a rule of thumb would put English numbers at 75% of these figures or higher.] cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |author= |coauthors= |title=France faces a ‘rosbif’ invasion|url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/global/main.jhtml?xml=/global/2005/01/20/wrosb20.xml|format= |work= |publisher=Daily Telegraph |id= |pages= |page= |date=2007-01-20|accessdate=2007-06-13 |language= |quote=]

Culture

The culture of England is sometimes difficult to separate clearly from the culture of the United Kingdom,Fact|date=April 2008 so influential has English culture been on the cultures of the British and Irish Isles and, on the other hand, given the extent to which other cultures have influenced life in England.

ee also

columns
col1width=12em
col1 =
* List of English people
* Anglo-Scot
* English American
* English Australian
* New Zealand European
* Anglosphere
* Anglo Argentines
* English Canadian
* List of Anglo-Indians
col2width=20em
col2 =
* English language
* Old English language
* Cumbric language
* Culture of England
* Immigration to the United Kingdom (1922-present day)
* Population of England (historical estimates)
* German-Briton
* Anglo-Indian
* Anglo-African
* English folklore
col3width=21em
col3 =
* «100% English» (Channel 4 TV programme, 2006)
* Manx people
* Genetic history of Europe
* European ethnic groups

References

Bibliography

*
*
*
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/state/nations/ BBC Nations] Articles on England and the English
* [http://www.macs.hw.ac.uk/britishisles/ The British Isles] Information on England
* [http://www.walkingtree.com/ Mercator’s Atlas] Map of England («Anglia») circa 1564.
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/1689955.stm Viking blood still flowing] ; BBC; 3 December 2001.
* [http://www.statistics.gov.uk/census2001/profiles/64.asp UK 2001 Census] showing 49,138,831 people from all ethnic groups living in England.
* [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2001/04/23/ncen23.xml Tory MP leads English protest over census] ; The Telegraph; 23 April 2001.
* [http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewForeignBureaus.asp?Page=%5CForeignBureaus%5Carchive%5C200104%5CFor20010423f.html On St. George’s Day, What’s Become Of England?] ; CNSNews.com; 23 April 2001.
* [http://www.sirc.org/news/watching_the_english.shtml Watching the English] ndash an anthropologist’s look at the hidden rules of English behaviour.
* [http://www.poemhunter.com/p/m/poem.asp?poet=37478&poem=457380 The True-Born Englishman] , by Daniel Defoe.
* [http://members.tripod.com/~GeoffBoxell/words.htm The Effect of 1066 on the English Language] Geoff Boxell
* BBC [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/2076470.stm «English and Welsh are races apart»]
* [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/11/opinion/11davis-sub.html New York Times, When English Eyes Are Smiling] Article on the common English and Irish ethnicity
* [http://mbe.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/19/7/1008 Y Chromosome Evidence for Anglo-Saxon Mass Migration]
* [http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1393742006 Origins of Britons — Brian Sykes]

Template group
list =

English people

File:21 English people.png
1st row: Alfred the Great • Oliver Cromwell • William Shakespeare • Michael Palin • Georgiana Cavendish • Walter Raleigh • Sting 2nd row: Elizabeth I of England • Bobby Moore • Margaret Thatcher • David Beckham • Harold Godwinson • Kate Winslet • Charles Dickens 3rd row: Pope Adrian IV • Daniel Craig • Isaac Newton • George Harrison • Jane Austen • Damon Albarn • George Stephenson
Total population
90 million worldwide
Regions with significant populations
United Kingdom 45,265,093[1]
United States 27,516,394 a [2]  Canada 6,570,015 b [3]  Australia 6,358,880 c [4]  New Zealand 44,202 – 281,895 [5]
Languages
English
Religion
Traditionally Anglicanism, but also non-conformists (see History of the Church of England) and also Roman Catholics (see Catholic Emancipation). Agnostics, atheism, as well as other religions. (see Religion in England).
Footnotes
a English American, b English Canadian, c English Australian

The English (from Old English: Englisc) are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens. Their ethnonym is derived from the Angles, a Germanic people originally from Northern Germany who migrated to Britain.^[6]

Historically, the English population are descended from several genetically similar peoples—the earlier Britons (or Brythons), the Germanic tribes that settled in the area, including Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, collectively known as the Anglo-Saxons, who founded what was to become England (from the Old English Englaland), and the later Danes, Normans and other groups. Following the Act of Union in 1707, in which the Kingdom of England became part of the Kingdom of Great Britain,^[7] English customs and identity became closely aligned with British customs and identity.

Today, some English people have recent forbears from other parts of the United Kingdom, while some are also descended from more recent immigrants from other European countries and from the Commonwealth. Through their position at the centre of the former British Empire, the English are the source of the English language, the parliamentary system, common law systems of many countries and a variety of the globe’s most popular sports.

English nationality[]

Although England is no longer an independent nation state, but rather a constituent country within the United Kingdom, the English may still be regarded as a «nation» according to the Oxford English Dictionary‘s definition: a group united by factors that include «language, culture, history, or occupation of the same territory».^[8]

The concept of an «English nation» is far older than that of the «British nation», and the 1990s witnessed a revival in English self-consciousness.^[9] This is linked to the expressions of national self-awareness of the other British nations of Wales and Scotland  – which take their most solid form in the new devolved political arrangements within the United Kingdom  – and the waning of a shared British national identity with the growing distance between the end of the British Empire and the present.^[10][11][12]

While prescriptions of English national identity can involve beliefs in common descent, most political English nationalists do not consider Englishness to be dependent upon kinship.^[13][14]

Many recent migrants to England have assumed a solely British identity, while others have developed dual or hyphenated identities.^[15][16] Use of the word «English» to describe Britons from ethnic minorities in England is complicated by most non-white people in England identifying as British rather than English. In their 2004 Annual Population Survey, the Office of National Statistics compared the ethnic identities of British people with their perceived national identity. They found that while 58% of white people described their nationality as «English», the vast majority of non-white people called themselves «British».^[17]

Relationship to Britishness[]

It is unclear how many British people consider themselves English. In the 2001 UK census, respondents were invited to state their ethnicity, but while there were tick boxes for ‘Irish’ and for ‘Scottish’, there were none for ‘English’, or ‘Welsh’, who were subsumed into the general heading ‘White British’.^[18] Following complaints about this, the 2011 census will «allow respondents to record their English, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish, Irish or other identity.»^[19] Another complication in defining the English is a common tendency for the words «English» and «British» to be used interchangeably, especially overseas. In his study of English identity, Krishan Kumar describes a common slip of the tongue in which people say «English, I mean British». He notes that this slip is normally made only by the English themselves and by foreigners: «Non-English members of the United Kingdom rarely say ‘British’ when they mean ‘English'». Kumar suggests that although this blurring is a sign of England’s dominant position with the UK, it is also «problematic for the English […] when it comes to conceiving of their national identity. It tells of the difficulty that most English people have of distinguishing themselves, in a collective way, from the other inhabitants of the British Isles».^[20]

In 1965, the historian A. J. P. Taylor wrote,

«When the Oxford History of England was launched a generation ago, «England» was still an all-embracing word. It meant indiscriminately England and Wales; Great Britain; the United Kingdom; and even the British Empire. Foreigners used it as the name of a Great Power and indeed continue to do so. Bonar Law, by origin a Scotch Canadian, was not ashamed to describe himself as «Prime Minister of England» […] Now terms have become more rigorous. The use of «England» except for a geographic area brings protests, especially from the Scotch.»^[21]

However, although Taylor believed this blurring effect was dying out, in his book The Isles (1999), Norman Davies lists numerous examples in history books of «British» still being used to mean «English» and vice versa.^[22]

In December 2010, Matthew Parris of The Spectator, analysing the use of “English” over “British”, argued that English identity, rather than growing, had existed all along but has recently been unmasked from behind a veneer of Britishness.^[23]

English ethnicity[]

The conventional view of English origins is that the English are primarily descended from the Anglo-Saxons, Germanic tribes that migrated to Great Britain following the end of the Roman occupation of Britain, with assimilation of later migrants such as the Vikings and Normans. This version of history is considered by some historians and geneticists as simplistic or even incorrect. Recently, historians have questioned the assumption that the English are primarily descended from Anglo-Saxons. Based on a re-estimation of the number of settlers, there is a view that it is highly unlikely that the existing British Celtic population was substantially displaced by the Anglo-Saxons, and the latter were merely a ruling elite who imposed their culture on the local populations.^[24][25] However, many historians, while making allowance for British survival, still hold to the view that there was significant displacement of the indigenous population.^[26][27]

In any event, the Celts, particularly in their use of Brythonic languages such as Cornish, Cumbric, and Welsh, held on for several centuries in parts of England such as Cornwall, Devon, Cumbria and a part of Lancashire^[28][29]. However, the notion of the Anglo-Saxon English has traditionally been important in defining English identity and distinguishing the English from their Celtic neighbours, such as the Scots, Welsh, Cornish and Irish. Historian Catherine Hills describes what she calls the «national origin myth» of the English:

The arrival of the Anglo-Saxons … is still perceived as an important and interesting event because it is believed to have been a key factor in the identity of the present inhabitants of the British Isles, involving migration on such a scale as to permanently change the population of south-east Britain, and making the English a distinct and different people from the Celtic Irish, Welsh and Scots ….this is an example of a national origin myth … and shows why there are seldom simple answers to questions about origins.^[30]

A popular interest in English identity is evident in the recent reporting of scientific and sociological investigations of the English, in which complex results are heavily simplified. In 2002, the BBC used the headline «English and Welsh are races apart» to report a genetic survey of test subjects from market towns in England and Wales,^[31] while in September 2006, The Sunday Times reported that a survey of first names and surnames in the UK had identified Ripley in Derbyshire as «the ‘most English’ place in England with 88.58% of residents having an English ethnic background».^[32] The Daily Mail printed an article with the headline «We’re all Germans! (and we have been for 1,600 years)».^[33] In all these cases, the language of race is employed by the journalists.^[34]

In addition, several recent books by Stephen Oppenheimer and Bryan Sykes, have argued that the recent genetic studies in fact do not show a clear dividing line between the English and their ‘Celtic’ neighbours, but that there is a gradual clinal change from west coast Britain to east coast Britain. They suggest that the majority of the ancestors of British peoples were the original palaeolithic settlers of Great Britain, and that the differences that exist between the east and west coasts of Great Britain though not large, are deep in prehistory, mostly originating in the upper palaeolithic and Mesolithic (15,000–7,000 years ago). Furthermore, Oppenheimer states that genetic testing has proven that «75% of British and Irish ancestors arrive[d] between 15,000 and 7,500 years ago» (that is, long before the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons).^[35]

Oppenheimer also claims that Celtic split from Indo-European earlier than previously suspected, some 6000 years ago, while English split from Germanic before the Roman period. Oppenheimer believes that a Germanic language that became English was spoken by the tribes of what is now England long before the arrival of the Anglo-Saxon and also discounts the view that the people of the area were ever Celtic.^[36][37]

History of English people[]

Main article: History of England

Antiquity[]

Further information: Genetic history of the British Isles and Settlement of Great Britain and Ireland

The term «English» is not used to refer to the earliest inhabitants of the area that would become England: Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers, Celtic Britons, and Roman colonists.^[38] This is because up to and during the Roman occupation of Britain, the region now called England was not a distinct country; all the native inhabitants of Britain spoke Brythonic languages and were regarded as Britons (or Brythons) divided into many tribes. The word «English» refers to a heritage that began with the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons in the 5th century, who settled lands already inhabited by Romano-British tribes. That heritage then comes to include later arrivals, including Scandinavians, Normans, as well as those Romano-Britons who still lived in England.^[38]

Early Middle Ages[]

Further information: [[Anglo-Saxons, Roman Britain, Sub-Roman Britain, Ancient Britons, Romano-Britons]]

File:Verstegan.jpg

The first people to be called ‘English’ were the Anglo-Saxons, a group of closely related Germanic tribes that began migrating to eastern and southern Great Britain, from southern Denmark and northern Germany, in the 5th century AD, after the Romans had withdrawn from Britain. The Anglo-Saxons gave their name to England (Engla land, meaning «Land of the Angles») and to the English.

The Anglo-Saxons arrived in a land that was already populated by people commonly referred to as the ‘Romano-British‘—the descendants of the native Brythonic-speaking population that lived in the area of Britain under Roman rule during the 1st–5th centuries AD. The multi-ethnic nature of the Roman Empire meant that small numbers of other peoples may have also been present in England before the Anglo-Saxons arrived. There is archaeological evidence, for example, of an early North African presence in a Roman garrison at Aballava, now Burgh-by-Sands, in Cumbria; a fourth-century inscription says that the Roman military unit Numerus Maurorum Aurelianorum («unit of Aurelian Moors») from Muretania (Morocco) was stationed there.^[39]

The exact nature of the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons and their relationship with the Romano-British is a matter of debate. Traditionally, it was believed that a mass invasion by various Anglo-Saxon tribes largely displaced the indigenous British population in southern and eastern Great Britain (modern day England with the exception of Cornwall). This was supported by the writings of Gildas, the only contemporary historical account of the period, describing slaughter and starvation of native Britons by invading tribes (aduentus Saxonum).^[40]

Added to this was the fact that the English language contains no more than a handful of words borrowed from Brythonic sources (although the names of some towns, cities, rivers etc. do have Brythonic or pre-Brythonic origins, becoming more frequent towards the west of Britain).^[41] However, this view has been re-evaluated by some archaeologists and historians since the 1960s, and more recently supported by genetic studies,^[37] who see only minimal evidence for mass displacement. Archaeologist Francis Pryor has stated that he «can’t see any evidence for bona fide mass migrations after the Neolithic.»^[42]

While the historian Malcolm Todd writes «It is much more likely that a large proportion of the British population remained in place and was progressively dominated by a Germanic aristocracy, in some cases marrying into it and leaving Celtic names in the, admittedly very dubious, early lists of Anglo-Saxon dynasties. But how we identify the surviving Britons in areas of predominantly Anglo-Saxon settlement, either archaeologically or linguistically, is still one of the deepest problems of early English history.»^[43]

In a survey of the genes of British and Irish men, even those British regions that were most genetically similar to (Germanic speaking) continental regions were still more genetically British than continental: «When included in the PC analysis, the Frisians were more ‘Continental’ than any of the British samples, although they were somewhat closer to the British ones than the North German/Denmark sample. For example, the part of mainland Britain that has the most Continental input is Central England, but even here the AMH+1 frequency, not below 44% (Southwell), is higher than the 35% observed in the Frisians. These results demonstrate that even with the choice of Frisians as a source for the Anglo-Saxons, there is a clear indication of a continuing indigenous component in the English paternal genetic makeup.»^[44]

Vikings and the Danelaw[]

Further information: Viking and Danelaw

From about AD 800 waves of Danish Viking assaults on the coastlines of the British Isles were gradually followed by a succession of Danish settlers in England. At first, the Vikings were very much considered a separate people from the English. This separation was enshrined when Alfred the Great signed the Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum to establish the Danelaw, a division of England between English and Danish rule, with the Danes occupying northern and eastern England.^[45]

However, Alfred’s successors subsequently won military victories against the Danes, incorporating much of the Danelaw into the nascent kingdom of England. Danish invasions continued into the 11th century, and there were both English and Danish kings in the period following the unification of England (for example, Æthelred II (978–1013 and 1014–1016) was English but Cnut (1016–1035) was Danish).

Gradually, the Danes in England came to be seen as ‘English’. They had a noticeable impact on the English language: many English words, such as anger, ball, egg, got, knife, take, and they, are of Old Norse origin,^[46] and place names that end in -thwaite and -by are Scandinavian in origin.^[47]

English unification[]

Further information: [[Danelaw, Treaty of Wedmore, Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum]]

The English population was not politically unified until the 10th century. Before then, it consisted of a number of petty kingdoms which gradually coalesced into a Heptarchy of seven powerful states, the most powerful of which were Mercia and Wessex. The English nation state began to form when the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms united against Danish Viking invasions, which began around 800 AD. Over the following century and a half England was for the most part a politically unified entity, and remained permanently so after 959.

The nation of England was formed in 937 by Athelstan of Wessex after the Battle of Brunanburh,^[48][49] as Wessex grew from a relatively small kingdom in the South West to become the founder of the Kingdom of the English, incorporating all Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and the Danelaw.^[50]

Norman and Angevin rule[]

Further information: [[Normans]]

The Norman conquest of England during 1066 brought Anglo-Saxon and Danish rule of England to an end, as the new Norman elite almost universally replaced the Anglo-Saxon aristocracy and church leaders. After the conquest, «English» normally included all natives of England, whether they were of Anglo-Saxon, Scandinavian or Celtic ancestry, to distinguish them from the Norman invaders, who were regarded as «Norman» even if born in England, for a generation or two after the Conquest.^[51] The Norman dynasty ruled England for 87 years until the death of King Stephen in 1154, when the succession passed to Henry II, House of Plantagenet (based in France), and England became part of the Angevin Empire until 1399.

Various contemporary sources suggest that within fifty years of the invasion most of the Normans outside the royal court had switched to English, with Anglo-Norman remaining the prestige language of government and law largely out of social inertia. For example, Orderic Vitalis, a historian born in 1075 and the son of a Norman knight, said that he learned French only as a second language. Anglo-Norman continued to be used by the Plantagenet kings until Edward I came to the throne.^[52] Over time the English language became more important even in the court, and the Normans were gradually assimilated, until, by the 14th century, both rulers and subjects regarded themselves as English and spoke the English language.^[53]

Despite the assimilation of the Normans, the distinction between ‘English’ and ‘French’ survived in official documents long after it had fallen out of common use, in particular in the legal phrase Presentment of Englishry (a rule by which a hundred had to prove an unidentified murdered body found on their soil to be that of an Englishman, rather than a Norman, if they wanted to avoid a fine). This law was abolished in 1340.^[54]

In the United Kingdom[]

Main article: History of the formation of the United Kingdom

Since the 18th century, England has been one part of a wider political entity covering all or part of the British Isles, which today is called the United Kingdom. Wales was annexed by England by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542, which incorporated Wales into the English state.^[55] A new British identity was subsequently developed when James VI of Scotland became James I of England as well, and expressed the desire to be known as the monarch of Britain.^[56]

In 1707, England formed a union with Scotland by passing an Act of Union in March 1707 that ratified the Treaty of Union. The Parliament of Scotland had previously passed its own Act of Union, so the Kingdom of Great Britain was born on 1 May 1707. In 1801, another Act of Union formed a union between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland, creating the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922, about two thirds of the Irish population (those who lived in twenty-six of the thirty-two counties of Ireland), left the United Kingdom to form the Irish Free State. The remainder became
the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, although this name was not introduced until 1927, after some years in which the term «United Kingdom» had been little used.

Throughout the history of the UK, the English have been dominant in population and in political weight. As a consequence, notions of ‘Englishness’ and ‘Britishness’ are often very similar. At the same time, after the Union of 1707, the English, along with the other peoples of the British Isles, have been encouraged to think of themselves as British rather than to identify themselves with the constituent nations.^[57]

Immigration and assimilation[]

See also: Historical immigration to Great Britain and Immigration to the United Kingdom (1922-present day)

Although England has not been conquered since the Norman conquest nor extensively settled since, it has been the destination of varied numbers of migrants at different periods from the seventeenth century. While some members of these groups maintain a separate ethnic identity, others have assimilated and intermarried with the English. Since Oliver Cromwell’s resettlement of the Jews in 1656, there have been waves of Jewish immigration from Russia in the nineteenth century and from Germany in the twentieth.^[58]

After the French king Louis XIV declared Protestantism illegal in 1685 with the Edict of Fontainebleau, an estimated 50,000 Protestant Huguenots fled to England.^[59] Due to sustained and sometimes mass emigration from Ireland, current estimates indicate that around 6 million people in the UK have at least one grandparent born in Ireland.^[60]

There has been a black presence in England since at least the 16th century due to the slave trade and an Indian presence since the mid 19th century because of the British Raj.^[61] Black and Asian proportions have grown in England as immigration from the British Empire and the subsequent Commonwealth of Nations was encouraged due to labour shortages during post-war rebuilding.^[62]
However, these groups are often still considered to be ethnic minorities and research has shown that black and Asian people in the UK are more likely to identify as British rather than with one of the state’s four constituent nations, including England.^[63]

Current national and political identity[]

The 1990s witnessed a resurgence of English national identity.^[64] Survey data shows a rise in the number of people in England describing their national identity as English and a fall in the number describing themselves as British.^[65] Scholars and journalists have noted a rise in English self-consciousness, with increased use of the English flag, particularly at football matches where the Union flag was previously more commonly flown by fans.^[66][67]

This perceived rise in English self-consciousness has generally been attributed to the devolution in the late 1990s of some powers to the Scottish Parliament and National Assembly for Wales.^[64][68] In policy areas for which the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have responsibility, the UK Parliament votes on laws that consequently only apply to England. Because the Westminster Parliament is composed of MPs from throughout the UK, this has given rise to the «West Lothian question«, a reference to the situation in which MPs representing constituencies outside England can vote on matters affecting only England, but MPs cannot vote on the same matters in relation to the other parts of the UK.^[69] Consequently, groups such as the Campaign for an English Parliament have called for the creation of a devolved English Parliament, claiming that there is now a discriminatory democratic deficit against the English. The establishment of an English parliament has also been backed by a number of Scottish and Welsh nationalists.^[70][71] Writer Paul Johnson has suggested that like most dominant groups, the English have only demonstrated interest in their ethnic self-definition when they were feeling oppressed.^[72]

John Curtice argues that «In the early years of devolution…there was little sign» of an English backlash against devolution for Scotland and Wales, but that more recently survey data shows tentative signs of «a form of English nationalism…beginning to emerge among the general public».^[73] Michael Kenny, Richard English and Richard Hayton, meanwhile, argue that the resurgence in English nationalism predates devolution, being observable in the early 1990s, but that this resurgence does not necessarily have negative implications for the perception of the UK as a political union.^[74] Others question whether devolution has led to a rise in English national identity at all, arguing that survey data fails to portray the complex nature of national identities, with many people considering themselves both English and British.^[75]

Recent surveys of public opinion on the establishment of an English parliament have given widely varying conclusions. In the first five years of devolution for Scotland and Wales, support in England for the establishment of an English parliament was low at between 16 and 19 per cent, according to successive British Social Attitudes Surveys.^[76] A report, also based on the British Social Attitudes Survey, published in December 2010 suggests that only 29 per cent of people in England support the establishment of an English parliament, though this figure had risen from 17 per cent in 2007.^[77]
One 2007 poll carried out for BBC Newsnight, however, found that 61 per cent would support such a parliament being established.^[78] Krishan Kumar notes that support for measures to ensure that only English MPs can vote on legislation that applies only to England is generally higher than that for the establishment of an English parliament, although support for both varies depending on the timing of the opinion poll and the wording of the question.^[79] Electoral support for English nationalist parties is also low, even though there is public support for many of the policies they espouse.^[80] The English Democrats gained just 64,826 votes in the 2010 UK general election, accounting for 0.3 per cent of all votes cast in England.^[81] Kumar argued in 2010 that «despite devolution and occasional bursts of English nationalism – more an expression of exasperation with the Scots or Northern Irish – the English remain on the whole satisfied with current constitutional arrangements».^[82]

English diaspora[]

Further information: English American, Anglo-Argentine, English Canadian, English Chilean, Anglo-African, English Australian, and New Zealand European

From the earliest times English people have left England to settle in other parts of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, but it is not possible to identify their numbers, as British censuses have historically not invited respondents to identify themselves as English.^[84] However, the census does record place of birth, revealing that 8.08% of Scotland’s population,^[85] 3.66% of the population of Northern Ireland^[86] and 20% of the Welsh population were born in England.^[87] Similarly, the census of the Republic of Ireland does not collect information on ethnicity, but it does record that there are over 200,000 people living in Ireland who were born in England and Wales.^[88]

English emigrant and ethnic descent communities are found across the world, and in some places, settled in significant numbers. Substantial populations descended from English colonists and immigrants exist in the United States, Canada, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand.

United States[]

According to the American Community Survey in 2009 data, Americans reporting English ancestry made up an estimated 9.0% of the total U.S. population, and form the third largest European ancestry group after German Americans and Irish Americans.^[2]
However, demographers regard this as an undercount, as the index of inconsistency is high, and many, if not most, people from English stock have a tendency to identify simply as Americans^{[89][90][91][92]} or, if of mixed European ancestry, nominate a more recent and differentiated ethnic group.^[93]

Throughout the nineteenth century, England was the largest investor in American land development, railroads, mining, cattle ranching, and heavy industry. Perhaps because English settlers gained easy acceptance, they founded few organizations dedicated to preserving the traditions of their homeland.
In the 2000 United States Census, 24,509,692 Americans described their ancestry as wholly or partly English. In addition, 1,035,133 recorded British ancestry.^[94]

In the 1980 United States Census, over 49 million (49,598,035) Americans claimed English ancestry, at the time around 26.34% of the total population and largest reported group which, even today, would make them the largest ethnic group in the United States.^[95][96]

Canada[]

In the 2006 Canadian Census, ‘English’ was the most common ethnic origin (ethnic origin refers to the ethnic or cultural group(s) to which the respondent’s ancestors belong^[97]) recorded by respondents; 6,570,015 people described themselves as wholly or partly English, 16% of the population.^[98] On the other hand people identifying as Canadian but not English may have previously identified as English before the option of identifying as Canadian was available.^[99]

Australia[]

In Australia, the 2006 Australian Census recorded 6,298,945 people who described their ancestry, but not ethnicity, as ‘English’. 1,425,559 of these people recorded that both their parents were born overseas.

Other communities[]

Significant numbers of people with at least some English ancestry also live in Scotland and Wales, as well as in Ireland, Chile, Argentina, New Zealand, and South Africa. Most of the Britons in Pakistan are in fact British Pakistanis from England who have returned to their ancestral country.

Since the 1980s there have been increasingly large numbers of English people, estimated at over 3 million, permanently or semi-permanently living in Spain and France, drawn there by the climate and cheaper house prices.^[100]

Culture[]

Further information: [[Culture of England]]

The culture of England is sometimes difficult to separate clearly from the culture of the United Kingdom,^[101] so influential has English culture been on the cultures of the British Isles and, on the other hand, given the extent to which other cultures have influenced life in England.

See also[]

British People List of English people Old English (Ireland) Culture of England English folklore

Immigration to the United Kingdom (1922-present day) Population of England  (historical estimates) 100% English  (Channel 4 TV programme, 2006)

Manx people Genetic history of Europe European ethnic groups

Language:

• Anglicisation
• Anglosphere
• English language
• Old English language
• Cumbric language

Diaspora:

• Anglo-Scot
• Anglo-Irish
• English American
• English Australian
• Anglo Argentines
• English Chilean
• English Canadian
• List of Anglo-Indians
• English Brazilian
• New Zealand European
• Anglo-Indian
• Anglo-Burmese
• Anglo-African
• Metis people

Notes[]

References[]

• Expert Links: English Family History and Genealogy Great for tracking down historical inhabitants of England.
• (2006) «English identity and ethnic diversity in the context of UK constitutional change». Ethnicities 6 (2): 123–158. DOI:10.1177/1468796806063748. 
• Kate Fox (2004). Watching the English. Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 0340818867.
• Kumar, Krishan (2003). The Making of English National Identity. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521777364.
• Kumar, Krishan (2010). «Negotiating English identity: Englishness, Britishness and the future of the United Kingdom». Nations and Nationalism 16 (3): 469–487. DOI:10.1111/j.1469-8129.2010.00442.x. 
• Paxman, Jeremy (1999). The English. Penguin Books Ltd. ISBN 0140267239.

Further reading[]

• Robert J.C. Young (2008). The Idea of English Ethnicity. Blackwell Publishers. ISBN 1-4051-0129-6.
• BBC Nations Articles on England and the English
• The British Isles Information on England
• Mercator’s Atlas Map of England («Anglia») circa 1564.
• Viking blood still flowing; BBC; 3 December 2001.
• UK 2001 Census showing 49,138,831 people from all ethnic groups living in England.
• Tory MP leads English protest over census; The Telegraph; 23 April 2001.
• On St. George’s Day, What’s Become Of England?; CNSNews.com; 23 April 2001.
• Watching the English – an anthropologist’s look at the hidden rules of English behaviour.
• The True-Born Englishman, by Daniel Defoe.
• The Effect of 1066 on the English Language Geoff Boxell
• BBC «English and Welsh are races apart»
• New York Times, When English Eyes Are Smiling Article on the common English and Irish ethnicity
• Y Chromosome Evidence for Anglo-Saxon Mass Migration
• Origins of Britons – Bryan Sykes

Template:British peoples

The Origins of English

The English language is Germanic in origin, although over half of its words have derived from contact with the Latin and French languages and some from Scandinavian influence.

English has spread across the globe and is now the first language of over 50 countries and the world’s most commonly spoken second language.

 

The British Isles have been inhabited for over 50,000 years. Knowledge of the British languages during this earlier time in British history is limited, however, it was the arrival of the Celts some 3000 years ago that saw the development of the languages in Britain that we can trace today.

This Celtic influence on British language is still evident in modern times in the Welsh spoken in Wales and the Gaelic spoken in Scotland and in Ireland.

The British Isles was inhabited by Celtic and Roman peoples before the arrival of the Germanic tribes who brought with them the language that developed into what we call English.

 

Old English (c. 450 – 1100)

Old English is the term we use to describe the English language from c. 450 – 1100.

Our modern English is very different from Old English. The language has undergone many changes with its development taking place over 1500 years.

Although Latin held a strong influence throughout the Roman’s rule, the language of English officially started in 449 with the arrival of the Germanic tribes. The words ‘English’ and ‘England’ derive from one of these tribes, the ‘Angles’.

Words from North Germanic origin also flooded into the English language, especially in the north of England, due to the Viking invasions, which started in around 850. This was a main influence on the creation and development of the Old English language.

The Vikings domination of England was stopped by King Alfred the Great (871 – 900) and the most of the invaders ended up settling down with the English people and adopting Christianity.

Grammar of Old English

Much of the Old English language surviving today uses gender in nouns, while word order was not fixed and there was a lot of freedom in the way the language was used.

Old English grammar is similar to the grammar of modern German with different inflectional endings, four distinctive cases (nominative, dative, accusative and genitive) and gendered nouns.

Another similarity with modern German was that Old English often moved the verb to the end of the sentence in subordinate clauses.

Other distinctive parts of Old English grammar included: the absence of a word for ‘do’ when forming questions, a large number of double negatives (as found in modern Spanish), no distinction between the letters V and U in the written form and an absence of the letters J and W.

The Influence of the Church on Old English

In the late 6th century, the Anglo-Saxons embraced Latin Christianity. One of the big cultural shifts of this time was the introduction of parchment, which was used for record-keeping within the Church.

Before this time, all writing tended to be simple, short engravings made on either wood or bone, with the earliest Anglo-Saxon inscriptions dating from around 450.

With the invention of parchment, longer texts could be written down, while virtually all the examples of Old English surviving today can be found through the Church. The earliest Anglo Saxon written texts date from the late 7th century.

 

Old English Literature

Texts written in Old English language consist of poetry, prose, maxims and proverbs. Much of it was based on the Bible and Pagan traditions. The texts are hard to date and rarely have an author’s name attached. The earliest texts are all poems and feature details of heroic journeys and exciting battles.

Some well-preserved Old English verses are the poems written by the religious writers Caedmon (7th century) and Cynewulf (9th century). King Alfred the Great also translated many poems from Latin in the late 9th century.

The most famous Old English poem is Beowulf, an epic tale consisting of over 3,000 verses. The oldest surviving manuscript of this text dates from around 1000, although it is thought to have been written in the 8th century and then revised in the 10th century.

Although anonymous, the text’s author uses knowledge from the Bible and Homer to tell the story of a heroic adventurer. Set in Scandinavia around 500-600, the text explores the themes of bravery and kindness and is an important source of historical information.

You can read Beowulf in Old English at the Poetry Foundation.org and read an overview of the story and translation of Beowulf from Project Gutenberg. It is also possible to listen to a reading from Beowulf in Old English on YouTube.

Old English Dialects

There were four main dialects of Old English: Northumbrian, Mercian, West Saxon and Kentish. These dialects were from the North, Midlands, South West and South East respectively, with the Northumbrian and Mercian dialects often grouped together as Anglian.

By the end of the Old English period at the end of the 11th century, West Saxon dominated and was adopted by the other areas. Most of the surviving documents from this period are written in the West Saxon dialect.

Although only about a sixth of Anglo-Saxon words survived, which only makes up about 1% of the current English language, the words that survived are very important words. that English speakers use every day.

 

These words include: ‘water’, ‘strong’, ‘food‘, ‘earth’, ‘sleep’, ‘you, ‘be’, ‘not’, ‘from’, ‘and’, ‘where‘, ‘wood’, ‘home‘, ‘family’, ‘brother’, ‘daughter’, ‘laughter’, ‘first’ and ‘moon‘. Interestingly, many modern English swear words also have their roots in Old English.

Many words look similar but have changed meaning over time, so readers of Old English language texts should be careful of these ‘false friends‘. For example, ‘wif’ (wife) meant any woman, not only a married one, while ‘won’ (wan) meant dark, not pale and ‘sona’ (soon) meant immediately, not in a short while.

At the end of the 11th century, the English language had gone through the Norman Conquest (resulting from England’s defeat at the Battle of Hastings in 1066) and this meant that Old English was about to shift into Middle English.

Many students find learning ancient languages a fascinating experience. If you are interested in the Old English language, Beowulf if a great place to start.

Next: The Norman Conquest

 

Attributions

1. The Battle of Stamford Bridge took place at the village of Stamford Bridge, East Riding of Yorkshire, in England on 25 September 1066, between an English army and an invading Norwegian force. The English won this battle but were defeated by the Normans at Hastings less than three weeks later. The battle traditionally symbolised the end of the Viking age.
2. The original image of the first page of the Beowulf manuscript [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

1. The etymological composition of ME.

2. The native and borrowed elements of the EV.

3. Classification of borrowings according to the language.

4. Etymological doublets.

5. International words.

Etymology
(from Greek etymon
«truth»
+ logos
«learning»)
is a branch
of linguistics that studies the origin and history of words tracing
them to
their earliest determinable source.

The following list provides a sample set of words that have been
incorporated into English:

French:
cuisine,
army, elite, saute, cul-de-sac, raffle.

Latin:
cup,
fork, pound, vice versa.

Greek:
polysemy,
synonymy, chemistry, physics, phenomenon.

Native
American languages: caucus,
pecan, raccoon, pow-wow.

Spanish:
junta,
siesta, cigar.

German:
rucksack,
hamburger, frankfurter, seminar.

Scandinavian
languages: law,
saga, ski, them, they, their.

Italian: piano, soprano, confetti, spaghetti, vendetta.

South
Asian languages: bungalow,
jungle, sandal, thug.

Yiddish:
goy,
knish, schmuck.

Dutch:
cruise,
curl, dock, leak, pump, scum, yacht.

Chinese:
mandarin,
tea, serge.

Japanese:
bonsai,
hara-kiri, kimono, tycoon, karate, judo.

English is
generally regarded as the richest of the world’s languages. It owes
its exceptionally
large vocabulary to its ability to borrow and absorb words from
outside. Atomic,
cybernetics, jeans, khaki, sputnik, perestroika are
just
a few of the many words that have come into use during XX century.
They
have been taken from Italian, Hindi, Greek and Russian.

«The
English
language», observed Ralph Waldo Emerson, «is the sea which
receives
tributaries from every region under heaven.» (в
презентацию)

The English
vocabulary has been enriched throughout its history by
borrowings from foreign languages. A
borrowing
(a
loan word) is a word
taken over from another language and modified in phonemic shape,
spelling, paradigm or meaning according to the standards of the
English language.

The process
of borrowing words from other languages has been going on for more
than 1,000 years. The fact that up
to 80 per cent of the English vocabulary consists of borrowed words
is due to the specific conditions of the English language
development.

When the Normans crossed over from France to
conquer England in 1066, most of the English people spoke Old
English, or Anglo-Saxon — a language of about 30,000 words. The
Normans spoke a language that was a mixture of Latin and French. It
took about three centuries for the languages to blend into one that
is the ancestor of the English spoken today. The
Normans bestowed on English words such us duchess,
city, mansion, and
palace. The
Anglo-Saxon gave English ring
and town.

Latin and Greek have been a
fruitful source of vocabulary since the 16^th
century. The Latin word mini,
its converse maxi
and the Greek word micro
have become popular adjectives to
describe everything from bikes to fashion. Perhaps the most important
influence in terms of vocabulary comes from what are called Latinate
words,
that is, words that are originally Latin. Latinate words are common
in English: distinct,
describe, transport, evidence, animal, create, act, generation,
recollection, confluence, etc.

There are practically no limits to the kinds of
words that are borrowed. Words are employed as symbols for every part
of culture. When cultural elements are borrowed from one culture by
another, the words for such cultural features often accompany the
feature. Also, when a cultural feature of one society is like that of
another, the word of a foreign language may be used to designate this
feature in the borrowing society. In
English, a material culture word rouge
was
borrowed from French, a social culture word republic
from
Latin, and a religious culture word baptize
from
Greek.

Such words become completely absorbed into the
system, so that they are not recognized by speakers of the language
as foreign. Few people realize that garage
is borrowed from French, that thug
comes from Hindustani, and that tomato
is of Aztec origin.

However, some words and phrases have retained
their original
spelling, pronunciation and foreign identity, for example:
rendezvous,
coup, gourmet, detente (French);
status quo,
ego, curriculum vitae, bona fide (Latin);
patio,
macho (Spanish);
kindergarten,
blitz (German);
kowtow, tea
Chinese,);
incognito,
bravo (Italian).

We may distinguish different types of borrowing
from one foreign language by another:

(1) when the two languages
represent different social,
economic, and political units and

(2)
when the two languages are
spoken by those within the same social, economic, and political unit.
the
borrowing of linguistic forms by one language or dialect from another
when both occupy a single geographical or cultural community.

The
first of these types has been usually called «cultural
borrowing»
while the second type has been termed «intimate
borrowing«.

Another
principal type is between dialects of the same language. This is
called «dialect
borrowing»
(в
презентацию).

Sometimes the
idea of a word rather than the word is borrowed. When
we talk about life
science instead
of
biology, it
is a type of borrowing the
meaning of the Greek derivative, but not the actual morpheme. This
type of borrowing is rather extensive, particularly in scientific
vocabulary
and trade languages as, for example, in Pidgin English in the South
Pacific.

A
number of words in English have originated from the names of people:
boycott,
braille, hooligan, mentor, saxophone, watt. Quite
a few names
of types of clothing originate from the people who invented them:
bowler,
cardigan, Wellingtons, mackintosh. A
number of names of different
kinds of cloth originate from place names: angora,
denim, satin, tweed,
suede. A
number of other words in English come from place names:
bedlam,
spartan, gypsy.

There are
many words that have changed their meaning in English, e.g.
mind
originally
meant «memory», and this meaning survives in the
phrases «to keep in mind», «time out of mind»,
etc. The word brown
preserves
its old meaning of «gloomy» in the phrase «in a brown
study».
There are instances when a word acquires a meaning opposite to
its original one, e.g. nice
meant
«silly» some hundreds of years ago.

Thus, there
are two main problems connected with the vocabulary of a language:
(1) the
origin of
the words, (2) their
development
in the language.

The
etymological structure of the English vocabulary consists of the
native element (Indo-European and Germanic) and the borrowed
elements.

By
the
Native
Element we
understand words that are not borrowed from
other languages. A
native word is a word that belongs to the Old English word-stock. The
Native Element constitutes
only up to 20-25% of the English vocabulary.

Old English,
or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English
language. It was spoken from about a.d.
600
until about a.d.
1100,
and most of its words had been part of a still earlier form of the
language.
Many
of the common words of modern English, like home,
stone,
and
meat
are
native,
or Old English, words. Most of the irregular verbs
in English derive from Old English (speak,
swim, drive, ride, sing), as
do most of the English shorter numerals (two,
three, six, ten) and
most of
the pronouns (I,
you, we, who).

Many Old
English words can be traced back to Indo-European, a prehistoric
language that was the common ancestor of many languages.
Others came into Old English as it was becoming a separate language.

(a)
Indo-European
Element:
since English belongs to the Germanic branch
of the Indo-European group of languages, the oldest words in English
are of Indo-European origin. They form part of the basic word stock
of all Indo-European languages. There are several semantic groups:

• words
  expressing family relations: brother,
  daughter, father, mother,
  son;

• names
  of parts of the human body: foot,
  eye, ear, nose, tongue;

• names
  of trees, birds, animals: tree,
  birch, cow, wolf, cat;

• names
  expressing basic actions: to
  come, to know, to sit, to work;

• words
  expressing qualities: red,
  quick, right, glad, sad;

• numerals:
  one,
  two, three, ten, hundred, etc.

There are many more words of
Indo-European origin in the basic stock of the English
vocabulary.

(b) Common
Germanic
words are not to be found in other Indo-European languages but the
Germanic. They constitute a very large layer
of the vocabulary:

• nouns:
  hand,
  life, sea, ship, meal, winter, ground, coal, goat;

• adjectives:
  heavy,
  deep, free, broad, sharp, grey;

• verbs:
  to
  buy, to drink, to find, to forget, to go, to have, to live, to make;

• pronouns: all,
  each, he, self, such;

• adverbs:
  again,
  forward, near; ‘

• prepositions:
  after,
  at, by, over, under, from, for.

The rest of the English vocabulary are borrowed
words, or loan
words.

Some scientists point out three periods of Latin borrowings in old
English:

1. Latin-Continental borrowings,

2. Latin-Celtic borrowings,

3. Latin borrowings connected with the Adoption of Christianity.

To the first period belong
military terms (wall,
street, etc.),
trade terms (pound,
inch), names
of containers (cup,
dish), names
of food (butter,
cheese), words
connected with building (chalk,
pitch), etc.
These were
concrete words that were adopted in purely oral manner, and they were
fully assimilated in the language. Roman influence was felt in the
names
of towns, e.g. Manchester,
Lancaster, etc.
from the Latin word caster
— лагерь.

Such
words as
port, fountain and
mountain
were
borrowed from Latin through
Celtic.

With
the Adoption of Christianity mostly religious or clerical terms were
borrowed: dean,
cross, alter, abbot (Latin); church, devil, priest, anthem,
school, martyr (Greek).

Latin and Greek borrowings of
the Middle English period are connected
with the Great Revival of Learning and are mostly scientific words:
formula,
inertia, maximum, memorandum, veto, superior, etc.
They
were
not fully assimilated, they retained their grammar forms.

Many words from Greek, the other major source of
English words, came
into English by way of French and Latin. Others were borrowed in
the sixteenth century when interest in classic culture was at its
height. Directly
or indirectly, Greek contributed athlete,
acrobat, elastic, magic, rhythm,
and many
others.

There are some classical
borrowings in Modern English as well: anaemia,
aspirin, iodin, atom, calorie, acid, valency, etc.
There are words formed
with the help of Latin and Greek morphemes (roots or affixes): tele,
auto, etc.

Latin and Greek words are
used to denote names of sciences, political and philosophic trends;
these borrowings usually have academic or literary associations (per
capita, dogma, drama, theory, and
pseudonym).

Many other
Latin words came into English through French.
French
is the
language that had most influence on the vocabulary of English; it
also influenced its spelling.

After the Norman invasion in 1066, English was
neglected by the Latin-writing and French-speaking authorities.
Northern French became the official language in England. And for the
next three hundred years, French was the language of the ruling
classes in England. During this period, thousands of new words came
into English, many of them relating to upper class pursuits: baron,
attorney, luxury.

There are several semantic groups of French borrowings:

• government terms: to
  govern, to administer, assembly, record, parliament;

• words connected with
  feudalism: peasant,
  servant, control, money, rent, subsidy;

• military terms: assault,
  battle, soldier, army, siege, defence, lieutenant;

• words
  connected with jury: bill,
  defendant, plaintiff, judge, fine;

• words connected with art,
  amusement, fashion, food: dance,
  pleasure,
  lace, pleat, supper, appetite, beauty, figure, etc.

During the seventeenth
century there was a change in the character of the borrowed words.
From French, English has taken lots of words to do with cooking, the
arts, and a more sophisticated lifestyle in general (chic,
prestige, leisure,
repertoire, resume, cartoon, critique, cuisine, chauffeur,
questionnaire,
coup, elite, avant-garde, bidet, detente, entourage).

In addition to independent words, English borrowed
from Greek, Latin, and French a number of word parts for use as
affixes and roots, for example prefixes like поп-,
de-, anti— that
may appear in hundreds of different words.

English has continued to borrow words from French
right down to the present, with the result that over
a third of modern English vocabulary derives from French.

Scandinavian Borrowings
are connected with the Scandinavian
Conquest of the British Isles, which took place at the end of the 8^th
century. Scandinavians belonged to
the same group of peoples as Englishmen and the two languages were
similar.

The impact of Old Norwegian on the English
language is hard to evaluate.
Nine hundred words — for example, take,
leg, hit, skin, same —
are of Scandinavian origin. There
are probably hundreds more we cannot account for definitely, and in
the old territory of the Danelaw in
Northern England words like beck
(stream)
and garth
(yard)
survive in regional use. Words
beginning with sk
like sky
are Norse (the Danes — also called
Norsemen — conquered northern France, and finally England).

In many cases Scandinavian borrowings stood
alongside their English
equivalents. The Scandinavian skirt
originally
meant the same as the English shirt.
The Norse deyja
(to die) joined its Anglo-Saxon
synonym,
the English steorfa
(which
ends up as starve).
Other
synonyms include:
wish
and
want,
craft and
skill,
rear and
raise.

However,
many words were borrowed into English, e.g. cake,
egg, kid,
window, ill, happy, ugly, to call, to give, to get, etc.
Pronouns and pronominal forms were also borrowed from Scandinavian:
same,
both, though,
they, them, their.

In the modern period, English has borrowed from every important
language in the world

Over 120 languages are on
record as sources of the English vocabulary. From Japanese
come
karate,
judo, hara-kiri, kimono,
and tycoon; from
Arabic,
algebra,
algorithm, fakir, giraffe, sultan,
harem, mattress; from
Turkish,
yogurt,
kiosk, tulip; from
Farsi,
caravan,
shawl, bazaar, sherbet; from
Eskimo,
kayak,
igloo, anorak; from
Yiddish,
goy,
knish, latke, schmuck; from
Hindi,
thug,
punch, shampoo;
from
Amerindian
languages,
toboggan,
wigwam, Chicago, Missouri,
opossum. From
Italian
come words
connected with music and
the plastic arts, such as
piano, alto, incognito, bravo, ballerina, as
well as
motto,
casino, mafia, artichoke, etc.
German
expressions
in English have been coined either by tourists bringing back words
for new things they saw or by philosophers or historians describing
German concepts or experiences (kindergarten,
blitz, hamburger, pretzel, delicatessen, poodle, waltz, seminar). The
borrowings from other languages usually relate to things, which
English speakers experienced
for the first time abroad (Portuguese:
marmalade,
cobra; Spanish:
junta,
siesta, patio, mosquito, comrade, tornado, banana, guitar, marijuana,
vigilante; Dutch:
dock,
leak, pump, yacht, easel, cruise,
cole slaw, smuggle, gin, cookie, boom; Finnish:
sauna;
Russian:
bistro,
szar, balalaika, tundra, robot).

Although borrowing has been a very rich source of new words in
English, it is noteworthy that loan words are least common among the
most frequently used vocabulary items.

Most of the
borrowed words at once undergo the process of assimilation.
Assimilation of borrowed words is their adaptation to the system
of the receiving language in pronunciation, in grammar and in
spelling.
There are completely assimilated borrowings that correspond to
all the standards of the language (travel,
sport, street), partially
assimilated
words (taiga,
phenomena, police) and
unassimilated words (coup d’état,
tête-à-tête, ennui, éclat).

Borrowed words can be classified according to
the aspect which is borrowed. We can subdivide all borrowings into
the following groups:

• phonetic
  borrowings (table,
  chair, people);

• translation
  loans (Gospel,
  pipe of peace, masterpiece);

• semantic
  borrowings (pioneer);

• morphemic
  borrowings (beautiful,
  uncomfortable).