Curs 1. COUNTRY, PEOPLE AND LANGUAGE

1. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland – a Brief History

Although the entire name of the country is The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, it is often called the United Kingdom or Great Britain or, shortly, UK or Britain. It is made up of four different countries: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Many foreigners, when referring to the people, say “British” or “English”. Actually, the Englishmen live in England, and when we refer to people belonging to the other countries we should use the term “British”. The name comes from the Britons who settled in the West and South of the island.

The first inhabitants were the Celts who are said to have arrived from continental Europe several centuries before Christ. We can still see, on Salisbury Plain, the impressive circle of huge stones, called Stonehenge, which is said to have been built by the Celts. It may have been a temple of the Sun built by the Druid priests or, as some argue today, an astronomical complex as it appears to function as a kind of astronomical clock and it was used by the Druids for ceremonies marking the passing of the seasons. There were various tribes, the Gaels who settled in Scotland and Ireland, the Britons who settled in the West and South of the island, while the Gauls remained on the continent.

During the next 1,000 there were many invasions. In the year 43 B.C. the Romans, after conquering the Gauls, began the conquest of Britons. The roman conquest lasted until 410 A.D. when the conquerors left Britain. They were soon replaced by the new invaders, especially the Angles and the Saxons who came from Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands in the 5 th century and whose conquest lasted almost 200 years.

The legend of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table belongs to this period. Arthur saved Wales from the Saxons, but fell later on the battlefield of Lyoness. He is said to have been taken to the Valley of Avilion where he is waiting to come back some day and save his own people.

For three centuries, the Anglo-Saxons in their turn experienced successive invasions. The Vikings arrived from Denmark and Norway throughout the 9th century, and a Danish King even reigned over England for a time. Then the Normans – a Danish people that had settled first in France, in Normandy, invaded from France. The last of the Saxon kings was Edward the Confessor (1042-1066). But he had no successors and the difficulties of his succession were the cause of the conquest of England by William of Normandy, in 1066. William became known as William the Conqueror; the episode of the Conquest during the famous Battle of Hastings can still be seen in a tapestry kept at Bayeux, which was made by Queen Matilda and her Maids of Honour, as the battle in which the Normans won took place near the town of Hastings. William of Normandy, having conquered England, strengthened his power all over the country. He allowed no feudal lord to become too powerful; he gave away to his friends, either Norman or English, the lands that had belonged to his Saxon opponents, and he built the massive Tower of London, still standing today. The rest of his life was filled with the conflict with Philip I King of France, in order to retain his possessions on the Continent. But in spite of wars and quarrels, the people on both sides of the Channel had much in common: the same feudal system, the same ideal of chivalry and Christianity, which even brought them to share in the same Crusades.

The hero of the 3rd Crusade was Richard the Lion-Heart, who had become King of England in 1189. During his four years’ absence and captivity, his brother John intrigued against him, and ruled the people with a rule of iron, making himself very unpopular. Richard died in 1199 and John became King. He was defeated in his struggle against Philip of France at Bouvines, in 1214. The following year, the barons and the bishops of England were so deeply exasperated by his tyranny that they compelled him to restore the liberties of the people. the Great Charter – or MAGNA CARTA – was signed at Runnymede, in 1215. It is still today the basis of the liberties of the English people.

All these invasions mentioned above drove the Celts into what is now Wales and Scotland, and they remained, of course, in Ireland. The English, on the other hand, are the descendants of all the invaders, but are more Anglo-Saxon than anything else. These various origins, explain many of the differences to be found between England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland – differences in education, religion and the legal systems, but most obviously, in language.

The Celts spoke Celtic which survives today in the form of Welsh, Scottish Gaelic and Irish Gaelic. Scottish Gaelic and Irish Gaelic are still spoken, although they have suffered more than welsh from the spread of English. However, all the three languages are now officially encouraged and taught in schools.

English developed from the Anglo-Saxon and is a Germanic language. The Roman period of English history which lasted 465 years brought a few Roman words into the English language: street, Lincoln, Doncaster and some other names. However, all the invading peoples, particularly the Norman French, influenced the English language and we can find more words in English which are of French origin. For two centuries after the Norman Conquest, England was ruled by foreign kings and French became the language of the upper classes. As French was used in Parliament, in the Law Courts and in all official writing as well as in literary works, many Englishmen were compelled to learn to speak it. However, the serfs and yeomen continued to speak their native tongue. Only in the 14th

century, nearly three hundred after the Norman Conquest, English became the official language of the country again, and towards the end of the century it became the language of literature as well.

On the other hand, as Latin was the language of learning in Western Europe, during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, and a good part of English literature was written in French, between 1200 and 1500, English borrowed, little by little, a great number of Latin words. The result was that the present-day vocabulary of the English people is almost half Germanic and half French and Latin.

Nowadays all Welsh, Scottish and Irish people English (even if they speak their own language as well), but all the countries have their own special accents and dialects, and their people are easily recognizable as soon as they speak. Occasionally, people from the four countries in the UK have difficulty in understanding one another because of these different accents. A Southern English accent is generally accepted to be the most easily understood, and is the accent usually taught to foreigners.

How was the United Kingdom formed?

This took centuries, and a lot of armed struggle was involved. In the 15 th century, a Welsh prince, Henry Tudor, became King Henry VII of England. Then his son, King Henry VIII, united England and Wales under one Parliament in 1536. In Scotland a similar thing happened. The King of Scotland

inherited the crown of England and Wales in 1603, so he became King James I of England and Wales and King James VI of Scotland. The Parliament of England, Wales and Scotland were united a century later in 1707.

VOCABULARY PRACTICE

To settle – They settled in the west.

She managed to settle the dispute.

I’ll settle this problem.

They settled the payment yesterday.

To settle down – She wants to settle down in the countryside.

He settled down in an armchair to read.

Settlers

Who were the first settlers in this region?

Island – They live on an island in the Pacific.

Isle – have you visited the Isle of Wight?

Inhabited – Which are the inhabited regions on earth?

Inhabitants/dwellers – to dwell/dwelt/dwelt/dwelling

The inhabitants of the fishing village

COUNTRY LANGUAGE/NATIONALITY PEOPLEEngland English an EnglishmanScotland Scottish/Scotch/Scots a ScotsmanWales Welsh a WelshmanIreland Irish an Irishman

Austria Austrian an AustrianBelgium Belgian/French-Flemish a BelgianBulgaria Bulgarian a BulgarianCyprus Cypriot/Greek/Turkish a Cypriot/Greek/TurkishThe Czech Republic Czech a CzechDenmark Danish a DaneEstonia Estonian an EstonianFinland Finnish a Finn

France French a FrenchmanGermany German a GermanGreece Greek a GreekHungary Hungarian a HungarianItaly Italian an ItalianLatvia Latvian A LatvianLithuania Lithuanian A LithuanianLuxembourg French A LuxembourgerMalta Maltese/English A MalteseHolland (the Netherlands) Dutch A DutchmanPoland Polish A PolePortugal Portuguese A PortugueseRomania Romanian A RomanianSlovakia Slovak A SlovakSlovenia Slovenian A SlovenianSpain Spanish A SpaniardSweden Swedish A SwedeNorway Norwegian A Norwegian Switzerland Swiss/French/German/

RomanshA Swiss