Ancient Britain. Lecture 2

Plan
1. Prehistoric Britain (The Iberians, the Beaker people, the Celts).
2. Roman Britain.
3. The Anglo-Saxon Conquest of Britain. Germanic Tribes.
5. The origin of the proper names: England, Anglia, Britain, London, Albion

The Iberians
around 3000 BC, from the Mediterranean, probably Spain,
lived in fortified settlements or villages,
a tribal organization,
were able to work with metal (including bronze),
knew the agricultutal techniques,
spoke Iberian Language.
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The Beaker people
during the Bronze Age (2000 BC),
their name is given to them because they used a special type of pottery vessel known to archaeologists as a beaker,
differed physically from the Iberians, being shorter and more round-headed,
brought new techniques of working with metals (working in copper, gold, and later in the bronze),
their settlement was a fortified hill-fort,
readily mixed with any new culture they met,
spoke an Indo-European language.
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The words of Indo-European language borrowed in English:
family relationship: father, mother, son, daughter, brother, sister;
the national environment: star, wind, water, stone, night, tree;
the domestic life: goose, wolf, corn, bull;
the parts of body: lip, nose;
adjectives: hard, quick, slow, red, new, glad, sad;
numerals: 1-100; I, you, he, my, that, who;
verbs: to bear, to do, to be, to sit, to stand, to eat.
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The Celts
around 700 вс,
from central Europe or further east, from southern Russia,
were tall, and had fair or red hair and blue eyes,
the ancestors of many of the people in Highland Scotland, Wales, Ireland, and Cornwall today,
using Celtic languages, which are still spoken,
technically advanced,
their social pattern was military aristocracy,
lived in warring tribes, which were sometimes at war with each other, sometimes trading peacefully with each other,
the main settelments the hill-fort remained.
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Celtic borrowings
(surprising small number)
Lake names with “loch” (means “lake”) Loch Ness
River names such as Avon, Don, Exe, Severn and Thames.
Town names include Dover, Eccles, Kent, Leeds and York.
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Roman Britain
from 5 ВС, but only in AD 43 a Roman army actually occupied Britain,
succeded because had a better trained army and the Celtic tribes fought among themselves,
could not conquer “Caledonia”(Scotland), built a strong wall (Hadrian's wall) along the northern border,
established a Romano-British culture across the south-western half of Britain, called the colony “Britannia”
Latin as the official written and spoken language,
in AD 409 Rome “went home”. The reasons: Roman empire began to collapse.
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Roman life
The greatest achievements of the Roman Empire was its system of roads and city foundations, the peace and the increased economic life.
London, a capital city (20,000 people, twice the size of Paris, the most important trading centre of northern Europe
20 large towns (5,000 inhabitants),
100 smaller.
towns were built with stone as well as wood, and had planned streets, markets and shops, some buildings had central heating.
all towns were connected by roads
6 main roads met in London,
Outside the towns - large farms, called "villas“, the sourse of fresh product.
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Latin borrowings in English language
geographical names (London), with the ending chester, caster or cester translated as “camp”: Gloucester, Leicester, Doncaster, Winchester, Chester, Lancaster
objects belonging to civilisation: cup, kitchen, mill, port, wine, butter, cheese, dish, pepper, street, wall, mile,
Christianity: priest, bishop, nun, candle.
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The Anglo-Saxon Conquest of Britain
about 447,
three powerful Germanic tribes – the Saxons, Angles and Jutes,
came from north-western Europe, mainly Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands,
era is often called the Dark Ages. Reasons: contemporary written sources do not exist,
cruel (the Celts were killed or turned into slaves and sold, the remained later mixed with the invaders),
The name of the Roman colony “Britannia” disappeared and was replaced by “England” – the land of Angles,
Reasons of coming: warriors were invited to come to England to help keep out invaders from Scotland and Ireland OR looking for new places to settle down and farm.
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Anglo-Saxon influence
Old English language, also known as Anglo-Saxon, developed from a set of dialects spoken by Germanic tribes traditionally known as the Angles, Saxons and Jutes.
Anglo-Saxon words are:
- short and concrete,
- down-to-earth items,
- everyday matters
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The words of the Anglo-Saxon (Germanic) origin are:
days of the week were named after Germanic gods: Tig (Tuesday), Wodin (Wednesday), Thor (Thursday), Frei (Friday),
the ending -ing meant folk or family: "Hastings" of the family of Hasta.
the ending -ham means “farm”, -ton means “settlement” Birmingham, Nottingham, Kingston or Southampton,
some grammatical words be, in, that,
the parts of the body arm, bone, chest, ear, eye, foot, hand, heart,
the natural environment field, hedge, hill, land, meadow, wood, storm, rain, ice, ground,
the domestic life door, floor, home, house, brige, shop, room, coal, iron, cloth, hat, shirt, shoe,
the calendar day, month, moon, sun, summer, winter, year,
animals cow, dog, fish, goat, hen, sheep, swine,
abstract nouns hope, evil, care, life, need, rest,
common adjectives black, broad, dead, deaf, deep, dark, good, long, white, wide,
common verbs become, bake, burn, buy, drive, eat, fly, go, help, hear, kiss, keep, live, love, learn, make, meet, rise, say, see, sell, send, think.
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Anglo-Saxon influence
the Anglo-Saxon tribes established a number of kingdoms: Kent (the Jutes), Essex, Sussex, Wessex (the Saxons), East Anglia, Mercia and Northumbria (Angles).
society was rural, agriculture was the main occupation and source of living.
ruled England for 500 years (100 years longer than the Romans).
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Origin of proper names
England. Anglo saxson origin, Old English means "land of the Angles".
Anglia. Anglo-Saxon origin, Old English.
Britain. Latin “Britannia~Brittania”. The origin of this word is uncertain.
London. Latin “Londinium” means ‘fast-flowing river’
Albion. Celtic, means "white" (in reference to the white chock southern shores of the island)
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