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 9
th
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 3
rd
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
14
th
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.
Ill 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 PEOPLE
England English an Englishman
Scotland Scottish/Scotch/Scots a Scotsman
Wales Welsh a Welshman
Ireland Irish an Irishman

Austria Austrian an Austrian
Belgium Belgian/French-Flemish a Belgian
Bulgaria Bulgarian a Bulgarian
Cyprus Cypriot/Greek/Turkish a Cypriot/Greek/Turkish
The Czech Republic Czech a Czech
Denmark Danish a Dane
Estonia Estonian an Estonian
Finland Finnish a Finn
France French a Frenchman
Germany German a German
Greece Greek a Greek
Hungary Hungarian a Hungarian
Italy Italian an Italian
Latvia Latvian A Latvian
Lithuania Lithuanian A Lithuanian
Luxembourg French A Luxembourger
Malta Maltese/English A Maltese
Holland (the Netherlands) Dutch A Dutchman
Poland Polish A Pole
Portugal Portuguese A Portuguese
Romania Romanian A Romanian
Slovakia Slovak A Slovak
Slovenia Slovenian A Slovenian
Spain Spanish A Spaniard
Sweden Swedish A Swede
Norway Norwegian A Norwegian
Switzerland Swiss/French/German/Romansh A Swiss