Hints:

the Angles  盎格鲁人

the Saxons  撒克逊人

the Jutes  朱特人

Celtic  凯尔特人的

Englisc

Norse 挪威人的

Good morning, everyone. Today, I am going to talk about the origins and development of English language. The history of the English language really started with the arrival of three Germanic tribes who invaded Britain during the 5th century AD. These tribes, the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes, crossed the North Sea from what today is Denmark and northern Germany. At that time the inhabitants of Britain spoke a Celtic language. But most of the Celtic speakers were pushed west and north by the invaders, mainly into what is now Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The Angles came from an angle-shaped land area and their language was called Englisc, from which the words England and English are derived. Generally speaking, the history of the language is divided in to three: Old English, Middle English, Modern English. In some books, Modern English is divided into two: Early Modern and Late Modern English. Old English did not sound or look like English today. Native English speakers now would have great difficulty understanding Old English. It had some sounds which we don't have now. In grammar, Old English was much more highly inflected than Middle English because there were case endings for nouns, more person and number endings of words and a more complicated pronoun system as well as various endings for adjectives. In vocabulary, Old English is also quite different from Middle English. Most of the Old English words are native English which weren't borrowed from other languages. On the other hand, Old English contains borrowed words coming from Norse and Latin. Nevertheless, about half of the most commonly used words in Modern English have Old English roots. The words, be, strong and water, for example, derive from Old English. Old English was spoken until around 1100.
各位早上好。今天，我要讲讲英语语言的起源和发展。英语的历史真正起源于公元5世纪时期，三个日耳曼部落入侵英国。这三个日耳曼部落分别为盎格鲁人、撒克逊人和朱特人。他们穿过北海，从今天的丹麦和德国北部而来。当时，英国原住民说凯尔特语。但是，大多数说凯尔特语的居民被侵略者赶往西部和北部——主要去了今天的威尔士、苏格兰和爱尔兰。盎格鲁人来自于一块弓箭状的土地，他们的语言叫Englisc，“英格兰”和“英语”这两个词就是由此演变而来。总的说来，英语的历史可以分为三个时期：古英语、中世纪英语和近代英语。有的书把近代英语分为两个部分：早期近代英语和晚期近代英语。 无论是听上去还是看上去，古英语和今天的英语相差甚远。现在以英语为母语的人要理解古英语，会面对很大困难。有些古英语的发音是我们现在所没有的。从语法上说，古英语比现代英语更为屈折，因为古英语有名词变格词尾、人称和数的词尾变化、更为复杂的代词体系以及各种各样的形容词变化。从词汇上说，古英语与中世纪英语有很大不同。大多数古英语词汇为本地英语，而非外来词。另一方面，古英语包含来自挪威和拉丁的外来语。无论如何，大约一半最常用的近代英语含有古英语词根，例如，"be"（是）、"strong"（强壮的）和"water"（水）都来自古英语。直到大约1100年，人们才停止说古英语。