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Where did English come from?

1. If you guessed that English came from England, you’re right—sort of. And if you guessed that English did not come from England, you’re also sort of right!
2. About 1,600 years ago, the southern part of what we now call England was a land of many small groups, kingdoms, and tribes—and a complex linguistic landscape. There were speakers of Celtic languages, like the one that eventually became Welsh, and Roman soldiers speaking one or more dialects of Latin. (Not to mention many Celts would have been speaking Latin, too!)
3. So linguistically, there was a lot going on on that relatively small island!
4. Around the 5th century, several groups of people from northern Europe (modern-day Germany and Denmark especially) moved to the southern part of that island. They were called the Angles, the Saxons, and the Jutes, and they were Germanic, so they were different culturally, ethnically, religiously, and linguistically from the Celts and Romans already settled there. In the end, English (the language of the Angles and the Saxons) became the predominant language of Engla lond (the land of the Angles). Today we call that language variety Old English.
5. But that’s only the beginning. A few centuries later, they’d be joined by people of Scandinavian descent (Vikings!) speaking languages that originated in the places we now call Sweden, Norway, and Denmark.

Blanco, C. (2025, April 17). Dear Duolingo: Where did English come from? Duolingo Blog. https://blog.duolingo.com/history-of-englishlanguage/