AhistoryofEnglish..docVIP

A history of English The English language we speak today went through three stages called Old English, Middle English and Modern English. But ages before even Old English came into being, many other languages had to arise and develop. The oldest of these, as far as we know, was the Indo-European family of languages, which were beginning to be spoken clear back during the Stone Age. During the Stone Age, some Indo-European people lived on the islands of Britain.我们现在所讲的英语曾经经历了三个阶段：古英语、中世纪英语和现代英语。但是，早在古英语出现之前，许多其他语言已经产生，并得到发展。据我们所知，其中最古老的语言是印欧语系。远在石器时代人们就开始使用印欧语了。在这个时期，一些印欧人就居住生活在英伦三岛上了。　The earliest known of these British Indo-Europeans split into two groups called the Scots and the Celts. There was another group, who were not Indo-European, called Picts. Together these three peoples are known as Britons. The Britons were a fierce, Stone Age people constantly making war on each other. They dressed in animal skins, lived in caves or rude wooden huts. These people had their own languages. 英国最早的印欧人分为两族：苏格兰人和凯尔特人。此外，还有一族叫做皮克特人，但他们不属于印欧语族。以上三个民族便是今日所说的不列颠人。石器时代的不列颠人骁勇好斗，连年互相发动战争。他们用兽皮遮体，住在洞穴或原始的小木屋里。他们有自己的语言。　At the same time that the Stone Age Britons were living their warlike life, the Greeks, far to the east of them, were building a great civilization in Europe. Many of our ideas of art, literature, science, philosophy and government today come from the genius of these ancient people. As the Greek civilization reached a high point, another great civilization was being built in Italy by the Romans, whose language was Latin. When the Romans conquered Greece and made it part of their empire, they found a culture much older and far superior to their own. So they borrowed it.石器时代的不列颠人以作战为生，与此同时，远在东部的希腊人却在创建欧洲伟大的文明。当今艺术、文学、科学、哲学和政治学的许多思想都源于古代希腊人民的智慧。当希腊文明达到了颠峰的时候，讲拉丁语的罗马人正在意大利创建着另一个伟大的文明。罗马人征服了希腊，并将它划归罗马帝国的版图。这时，他们发现了一个更为悠久的文化，一个比罗马文化希腊文化更为辉煌灿烂的文化。于是，罗马人将它借鉴了过来。 　After conquering all of Europe, Rome invaded Britain and made it part of the empire, in 43 A.D. Romans br