Eli5: Why is English comprised of so many different languages? And why aren’t English speakers still speaking in old English, or an even older language?
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“England” before it was even called that got invade by Anglo-Saxon who spoke some variation of German, by Romans who spoke Latin, by the vikings who spoke Danish or some similar Nordic language, by Normans who spoke some sort of French and a bunch of others.
They also did some invading themselves at first mostly anyone else they shared and island with and the neighboring islands and parts of France, but eventually much of the world. They mostly exported the languages but also sometimes brought words back when they encountered interesting vocabulary. Mostly names for things they didn’t have themselves but sometimes just weird bits of vocabulary like some Arabic word for daughter to just be another English slang word for girl.
Languages, even if the people speaking them are left alone, tend to change over time.
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