Tracing the languages
that built England
Within our historic buildings lies a flourishing, multilingual past.
Over the last century, English has become the world's leading lingua franca.
But before it began its journey of world domination, English – and the linguistic make-up of what would become England – looked very different.
Across English Heritage sites, not only can we still see examples of languages that left a lifelong influence on the way we speak today; we can also get a sense of how much influence English would go on to have as a superlanguage.
Imagine listening to the conversations that took place within these historic walls, and you'll discover the English language's intrepid linguistic journey through castles, abbeys and island retreats.
1. Celtic at Hadrian's Wall
When the Romans invaded Britain under the orders of Emperor Claudius in AD43, it had been their intention to conquer as much of the island as they could.
But while England and Wales submitted, the area we know today as Scotland proved more challenging. The landscape was unforgiving, and the local tribes – including the fearsome Picts – were formidable.
By the time of Emperor Hadrian's reign, the Romans had given up on their northern conquest. But this presented them with another problem – keeping the pesky barbarians out of the bit of Britain they had conquered.
Hadrian decided the solution would be an enormous wall tracing a border 73 miles long.
Reconstruction illustration showing the exterior face of the east gatehouse at Birdoswald Roman Fort on Hadrian's Wall, as it may have appeared in the third or fourth centuries. © Historic England Archive
Reconstruction illustration showing the exterior face of the east gatehouse at Birdoswald Roman Fort on Hadrian's Wall, as it may have appeared in the third or fourth centuries. © Historic England Archive
Hadrian's wall was built and manned by a multilingual set of soldiers, representing the vast reaches of the Roman Empire from places we know today as France, Iraq and Croatia, among many other countries.
Reconstruction illustration showing the arrival of Roman troops and officers, led by a standard bearer, in the courtyard of the Headquarters Building of Housesteads Roman Fort on Hadrian's Wall, as the scene may have appeared in the second century AD. © Historic England Archive
Reconstruction illustration showing the arrival of Roman troops and officers, led by a standard bearer, in the courtyard of the Headquarters Building of Housesteads Roman Fort on Hadrian's Wall, as the scene may have appeared in the second century AD. © Historic England Archive
North of this border, however, would have been the ancient Celtic languages of what the Romans called Caledonia.
Brittonic languages like Pictish and Cumbric which would have been spoken there by various tribes are now long extinct, though they live on in place names like Aberdeen, where 'aber' meant a confluence of waters.
The Picts left behind very little evidence of their presence, and have remained a mystery to archaeologists and linguists alike.
2. Irish at Silchester
The Roman conquest of Britain left an indelible impact on our language. Although estimates vary, two linguists in 1973 judged that 28% of English came from Latin.
Silchester, one of the best preserved Roman towns in Britain today, was once the thriving town of Calleva Atrebatum complete with public baths and an amphitheatre.
Reconstruction illustration showing an aerial view of the forum and immediate surrounding area at Calleva Atrebatum, now known as Silchester Roman City, as it may have appeared in the third or fourth century AD. © Historic England Archive
Reconstruction illustration showing an aerial view of the forum and immediate surrounding area at Calleva Atrebatum, now known as Silchester Roman City, as it may have appeared in the third or fourth century AD. © Historic England Archive
Latin would have been very influential here, but something else also makes Silchester unique in our history of the English language: its position in trade.
Despite Rome losing control of Britain at the beginning of the 5th century, Silchester flourished as a trade centre for at least another century, interacting with tradespeople around northern Europe.
In 1893, a precious stone artefact was dug up in Silchester from this vibrant commercial activity: an Ogham stone.
The Silchester Ogham stone. Image: wikimedia
The Silchester Ogham stone. Image: wikimedia
Ogham is an orthography that developed in southern Ireland in 400 AD, and which was often inscribed into stones or bark.
The Silchester Ogham Stone is the only ogham inscription that has been found in England east of Cornwall and Devon. It might even be one of the oldest ogham pillars found on record.
'The use of ogham suggests there were visitors to Silchester, or a community resident in the town, who could read and write this language.'
'Silchester's ogham stone is exceptionally interesting because it casts light on the post-Roman history of the town,' says Roy Porter, Senior Properties Curator.
'But it also poses unanswerable questions. It is a Roman dwarf column, which may have formed part of a veranda or portico, and its ogham inscription refers to a person called Tebicatos.
'Because the inscription has only partly survived, we don't know its original purpose. But its style, combined with the archaeological context of the stone, suggest it probably dates from the first half of the 5th century.
'Archaeologically speaking, the stone is an outlier, the only such stone yet to be found in England east of the River Severn. We don't know who Tebicatos was, but given the ogham inscription we must suppose he too was Irish, and the use of ogham suggests there were visitors to Silchester or a community resident in the town who could read and write this language.'
Reconstruction illustration showing a second or third century farmer threshing grain by throwing it in the air, on a farmstead near Silchester Roman City or Calleva Atribatum as it was then known. © Historic England Archive
Reconstruction illustration showing a second or third century farmer threshing grain by throwing it in the air, on a farmstead near Silchester Roman City or Calleva Atribatum as it was then known. © Historic England Archive
Irish migrants likely came to Silchester for its commercial opportunities, bringing their medieval writing system with them; but, in turn, British missionaries who travelled to Ireland in the 5th century soon introduced the Latin alphabet there, which would eventually take over ogham as the language's main writing system.
Despite having cross-cultural contact with Ireland for hundreds of years, we have less Irish in the English language today than you might think.
But if you have ever been scared by a bogeyman or a banshee, fallen into a bog, or called someone a hooligan, you may be pleased to know you are uttering loan words from our age-old interactions with the Irish.
Say 'It's nice to meet you!' in Irish:
'Deas bualadh leat!'
3. Old English at Whitby Abbey
While Whitby Abbey is most famous for its inspiring role in Bram Stoker's Dracula, it also occupies a crucial place in English history as one of the most important religious centres of the Anglo-Saxon world.
The Anglo-Saxons, who were a collection of mainly Germanic-speaking tribes, had begun to invade Britain in the 4th century. They did not, at first, build a united country, but instead ruled several different kingdoms like Wessex and Mercia.
In AD 657, the ruler of Northumbria, King Oswiu, gifted land to Abbess Hild to found a monastery for men and women at Whitby. Christianity was spreading around the country at this time, and Celtic Christian traditions were mixing with those of Roman Christians.
Latin, according to English Heritage's Michael Carter, was not only the language of the Church and liturgy, but of scholarship more generally. Even novices within the walls of Whitby would have been expected to have a basic familiarity with it.
Reconstruction illustration depicting the interior of the choir of Whitby Abbey church, as it may have appeared in the 15th century, looking east towards the altar. © Historic England Archive
Reconstruction illustration depicting the interior of the choir of Whitby Abbey church, as it may have appeared in the 15th century, looking east towards the altar. © Historic England Archive
All official business was conducted in Latin, and monasteries had Latin song and grammar schools.
'But monks were products of wider society,' says Michael. 'They'd have grown up with the vernacular (or vernaculars, English and French). And there's fascinating evidence for the presence of vernacular books in the libraries of medieval monasteries.'
It’s within this context that we can understand how one particular monk became such a good poet in a non-Latin language that he became the first English poet whose name we know: Caedmon.
St Caedmon. Detail of stained glass in Kirkby Malham Church, Yorkshire. Alamy photo
St Caedmon. Detail of stained glass in Kirkby Malham Church, Yorkshire. Alamy photo
Here is how one of Caedmon's surviving poems, in one of the earliest iterations of the English language, reads when translated into modern English:
Praise we the fashioner now of Heaven's fabric,
The majesty of his might and his mind’s wisdom,
Work of the world-warden, worker of all wonders,
How he the Lord of Glory everlasting
Wrought first for the race of men Heaven as a roof-tree,
Then made he Middle Earth to be their mansion.
The original:
Nu scylun hergan hefaenricaes uard,
Metudæs maecti end his modgidanc,
uerc uuldurfadur su he uundra gihuaes,
eci Dryctin or astelidae.
He aerist scop aelda barnum
heben til hrafe haleg Scepen;
tha middungeard moncynnæs uard,
eci Dryctin æfter tiadæ
firum foldu Frea allmectig
The successful invasion of the Anglo-Saxons would eventually oust Brittonic and Latin languages in favour of what we now call Old English; Caedmon not only wrote in Old English, but in the Northumbrian dialect of it.
The Anglo-Saxons' influence is why the English language is part of the Germanic language group – and to this day, English bears its greatest similarities with other West Germanic languages like Dutch and Frisian.
Say 'Hello!' in Old English:
'Wes hāl!'
4. Old Norse at Lindisfarne Priory
'Whirlwinds and flashes of lightning, and fiery dragons' are what we know of the devastating attack on the island of Lindisfarne by the Vikings in 793 – the first of many Viking attacks along the British coastline.
The raid was shocking because it assaulted the heart of Northumbrian Christendom. The holy church of Saint Cuthbert, the preacher who had evangelised the faith around the realm, was ransacked.
The 'great heathen horde' as Anglo-Saxon chroniclers described the Vikings would eventually defeat armies across England and set up semi-permanent homes under what was called Danelaw – the land under Viking control.
The Vikings spoke a language called Old Norse, a North Germanic language from Scandinavia which would go on to mother today's Norwegian, Icelandic, Swedish and Danish.
Their linguistic influence was especially strong in the north of England. Our geographical names still bear the vestiges of Viking presence here; Grimsby means Grimr's farm in Old Norse, and our name for York is taken from the Old Norse pronunciation of it as Jórvík.
Many other words in English derive from the Viking era, including – rather appropriately – the word 'slaughter'.
Toast your successful Viking raids with the word 'Skol!' – Old Norse for 'cheers', but also a war cry
5. Norman French at Berkhamsted Castle
Although English is a Germanic language, we owe many of our words to French because of the Normans.
Royal ties had existed for years between English and Norman lands – King Aethelred the Unready, for example, had married Emma of Normandy – but the link would become forever forged in 1066, when William the Conqueror won the Battle of Hastings.
With William's arrival came an implicit change in language policy as the court and official tasks of the state pivoted from speaking Old English to Anglo-Norman French.
William also began to build many castles – including Berkhamsted Castle, which was among first to be built as a timber motte-and-bailey in 1070 and which controlled the northern approach to London.
Reconstruction illustration showing an aerial view of Berkhamsted Castle as seen from the south, as it may have appeared circa 1250. © Historic England Archive
Reconstruction illustration showing an aerial view of Berkhamsted Castle as seen from the south, as it may have appeared circa 1250. © Historic England Archive
Just a few years earlier, William the Conqueror received the submission of the English at the site there; what the country had no idea about at the time was that this submission would also mean developing an entirely new language form.
Norman French: the reason why, unlike other languages, we have different words for the animals we look after – cows and pigs; and the animals we eat – beef and pork
The impact of Norman French is particularly felt in our words across government, art, law and even cuisine.
It's why, unlike other languages, we have different words for the animals we look after – cows and pigs in Old English; and the animals we eat – beef and pork from Norman French.
We can see the difference this linguistic change made in the works of Geoffrey Chaucer, who in 1389 was appointed Clerk of the Works at Berkhamsted Castle.
Equestrian portrait of Chaucer from the Ellesmere manuscript of his 'Canterbury Tales' (14th century). World History Archive / Alamy Stock Photo
Equestrian portrait of Chaucer from the Ellesmere manuscript of his 'Canterbury Tales' (14th century). World History Archive / Alamy Stock Photo
Chaucer is, of course, a lot more famous for his poetry than he is for his administrative experience, and was inspired to write about a 'Doctor of Phisick' who lived near Berkhamsted in his great work The Canterbury Tales.
The language Chaucer spoke is what today we call Middle English, which reads like this:
With us ther was a DOCTOUR OF PHISYK,
In al this world ne was ther noon him lyk
To speke of phisik and of surgerye;
For he was grounded in astronomye.
Can you understand what Chaucer wrote? It is very likely you understand a lot more of it than the poetry of Caedmon – and for this, we can thank the French!
Thank the French for their contribution to English with 'I thank thee' – Middle English for 'thank you'.
Or you could try Sarkese, an endangered language from the Channel Island of Sark that still holds archaic vestiges of Norman language varieties:
'Mérsî ben dê fê' is how they say 'thank you very much'.
6. Cornish at Tintagel Castle
As Old English blended with Norman French and began to look a little more like the language we speak today, it was still not the only language to be spoken in England.
In Cornwall, the Cornish language was a commonly spoken language until the 18th or 19th century when it became extinct, before a revival in recent years.
Cornish was – and is – a Common Brittonic survivor; part of the same language family as Welsh and Breton, Cornish holds some of the ancient words spoken by our ancestors before the Romans and all the other invaders came.
In the ancient past, Tintagel is believed to have been a residence for Cornish rulers, the last of whom died in the late 800s before coming under Anglo-Saxon rule.
Projecting out in the Cornish sea, Tintagel was an impressive site. It's not surprising the location inspired writers to mythologise about the land in the medieval period.
Geoffrey of Monmouth named it in his History of the Kings of Britain as the place where King Arthur was conceived, with the help of Merlin. A chivalric romance about an illicit love affair between a Cornish knight and an Irish princess called Tristan and Iseult is said to have taken place in Tintagel.
Statue of Geoffrey at the Old Station Tintern in Monmouthshire. Image via wikimedia
Statue of Geoffrey at the Old Station Tintern in Monmouthshire. Image via wikimedia
Such legends led to the building of Tintagel Castle in the 1230s by the ambitious Richard, Earl of Cornwall, brother to Henry III.
The site provides no military advantage, and it appears Richard picked the area solely because of the magical stories he had heard.
His court would have spoken medieval French – but his locals would have been entering what is known as the Middle Cornish period, reaching a peak of about 39,000 speakers in the 13th century.
Although we know the area as the anglicised 'Tintagel' today, in Cornish it was 'Tre war Venydh', meaning 'village on a mountain'.
Get romantic in Cornish with 'My a'th kar!' – 'I love you!'
7. Caribbean languages at Portchester Castle
The site of Portchester Castle could tell the story of the English language all by itself.
Portchester has been a Roman fortress, a Norman castle with one of the tallest keeps in the country and – most notoriously – it has functioned as an imperial detention centre, meaning many languages have passed through its walls.
In the 18th century, Britain was vying for colonial control over half the planet alongside other European powers like France.
When the two countries went to war in 1793, it therefore not only involved Britain and France but their allies and colonies, too.
The islands of the Caribbean were pulled into the conflict, where the population – largely inhabited by enslaved and free African men and women who had been working on European-owned plantations – were enlisted into fighting.
In 1796, a French garrison holding a fort in St Lucia surrendered to the British, were ordered onto British ships and brought back to Britain as French prisoners of war. There were about 2,500 of them. Many did not survive the freezing cold journey or imprisonment; but those who did went on to form part of a battalion of black pioneers who fought in France, Italy and Russia.
A sculpture commemorating black Caribbean prisoners of war at Porchester Castle
A sculpture commemorating black Caribbean prisoners of war at Porchester Castle
Before imperialism, the Caribbean was home to many indigenous languages; sadly, only the Garifuna language is still spoken today, in the western part of the northern coast of Central America, where it is endangered.
We know one of Portchester Castle's prisoners of war was Jean-Louis Marin Pedre, a free, mixed-race soldier, who had been the commander of the Garifuna.
Of the six official languages spoken in the Caribbean today, just one of them – Haitian Creole – preserves a significant heritage from non-European languages.
Britain's growing imperial power meant English began to be introduced and spoken around the world, sometimes forcibly. Today, 36 countries claim English as an official language.
Ask 'What are you doing today?' in Garifuna: 'Ka ba badüga uguñe?'
8. Hindi and Urdu at Osborne
By the 19th century and ascent of the British Empire, English had become a global language – but the woman at the heart of it recognised that multilingualism could be key to engaging with all her subjects.
Osborne, the former residence of Queen Victoria, holds a rarely-seen workbook collection known as her 'Hindustani Diaries' containing both English and Urdu script.
Queen Victoria, 1819–1901, by Bassano, 1882. Image: wikimedia
Queen Victoria, 1819–1901, by Bassano, 1882. Image: wikimedia
The British Raj, the era of British rule over the Indian subcontinent from 1858 to 1947, spanned her reign and lasted many years after she died.
Queen Victoria studied 'Hindustani' – the language that encompasses both registers of Hindi and Urdu today – for 13 years at the end of her life.
The exercise book shows us the fruits of the queen's language lessons with Abdul Karim, a young man from Agra who became her servant.
A page from Queen Victoria's Hindustani diary
A page from Queen Victoria's Hindustani diary
'Am learning a few words of Hindustani to speak to my servants. It is a great interest to me, for both the language and the people.'
The Queen and 'the Munshi' had a close, platonic relationship which is the subject of the 2017 film Victoria & Abdul.
'Am learning a few words of Hindustani to speak to my servants,' Victoria wrote in her letters. 'It is a great interest to me, for both the language and the people.'
Abdul Karim, Former Indian Secretary to Queen Victoria
Abdul Karim, Former Indian Secretary to Queen Victoria
These languages would perhaps have come quite naturally to Queen Victoria, who was already multilingual across English and German via her mother, with studies in French, Latin and Italian too.
Many words would come to enter English from Hindi and Urdu, including:
- avatar
- bandana
- jungle
- pyjamas
- and shampoo.
The main difference between Hindi and Urdu is the script they are written in as opposed to the words that they use. Together, they form the third most-spoken language in the world after English and Mandarin.
Make good on Queen Victoria's language lessons and say:
'Main mahaaraanee viktoriya hoon' – 'I am Queen Victoria'
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