What language did they speak in England before they spoke English ?
88294
Latin - who knows . . . is the answer searchable?\n\nI cheated . . . looked it up . . . \n\nOld English (449 - 1066 CE)\n\nThe Old English language (also called Anglo-Saxon) dates back to 449 CE. The Celts had been living in England when the Romans invaded. Although they invaded twice, they did not conquer the Celts until 43 CE and Latin never overtook the Celtic language. The Romans finally left England in 410 CE as the Roman Empire was collapsing, leaving the Celts defenseless. Then the Germanic tribes from the present-day area of Denmark arrived. The four main tribes were the Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Frisians. These tribes set up seven kingdoms called the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy that included: Mercia, Northumbria, Kent, Wessex, Sussex, Essex, and East Anglia. Four dialects were spoken in these kingdoms: West Saxon, Kentish, Mercian and Northumbrian. The Celts moved north to Scotland, west to Ireland and south to France, leaving the main area of Britain.
789809
You forget, darling, that the English language originated & came from Britain,  and the British preserved the original & correct pronunciation & style of speaking which sets the standard for English wherever it may be spoken.  \n\nAmerican, Caribbean, and other dialects of English are not original , have been altered & modified.  I am American but I dream of speaking proper British English as they do.  I love how they speak.  \n\nAfter all, English came from Britain, not from America or anywhere else.  And everyone here in America has their own peculiar style of speech.  this always happens with dialects which develop.\n\nI wish everyone spoke like the educated British, really.
404809
Their is no way I can assure you.  Over their in England, there English is so much better than we hick Americans.  Although in Australia, their were convicts that effected there language, so maybe there messed up, too.  They're are other ways to mess up their, by the way.  Also over their in China, there not speaking English, so most people wouldn't know this question from here or their. (Not to mention telemarketers their in India).  So in conclusion, the best way to know if there incapable of knowing the differences in there language is to take to heart the words of some old English teacher crone patting you on the knee saying, "There, their now sweetie, it will be alright."
6508
The British Empire is said to be an empire where sun never set. They had colonies all over the world. It was natural for these colonies to follow english. This is how the language spread.\n\nPhase 2 of the spread began with the american capitalism.
572439
The English were pretty much a confused lot! LOL
594600
great britain...\nvery english accents down under mixed with the native language of the land....quite interesting actually.\nIn south africa it's similar...british rule took over and created apartheid and the Afikaans language that is spoken is a mix of dutch and african dialects.   Just an FYI
1132599
my ex-wife was amazed that the woman she met from England, -knew english so well. Asked her "where did you learn english so well, - you don't have much of an accent"\n\nGod's honest truth.
595366
Neither.  There are a number of different American dialects and a number of different British dialects.  Moreover, in some ways, (standard) American English is more "conservative" (has changed less from older forms of the language) than (standard--RP) British English.  Also, it wasn't the *British* who spread the language throughout the world; it was the *English*.  The Welsh and Scots (and Irish if you mean "British Isles" rather than "Great Britain") only started speaking English (rather than their original Celtic languages) under rule by England.
530669
'There are places where English completely disappears : \nWhy, in America, they haven't spoken it for years !'\n- Prof Henry Higgins, in 'My Fair Lady' [Bernard Shaw and Alan Jay Lerner]
556216
4:\n\nenglish (live in england)\npunjabi (mother tongue)\nfrench\ngerman\n\nalso know a tad of dutch and a teeny bit of russian
1153096
Well English...Started from Anglo-Saxon.Some words are borrowd or adopted. Some were created by accident.
555656
Even before the invasion by the English the maharajahs used to bring scholars from there to teach their children English .And when India was under the British.Those who really had enough wealth and academics went abroad to study professional education as there were no colleges offering them here.Post independence knowing English was great thing soon as the development favoured schools started teaching English
792152
That also depends on what you mean by "medieval people"....\n\nI presume we're talking about medieval people in England, and you should be aware that English changed rapidly over the years that you might consider to be 'medieval times'.\n\nThe venerable Bede, a monk who lived in 7th/8th centuries,  wrote 'English' in a way almost totally unrecognisable even to people like Chaucer who lived from 1343-1400.\n\nBede is probably pre-medieval, I suppose for England Medieval means 900-1485 or so (the end of the wars of the Roses- our little mini-civil war, I think that's the date).  In the 10th century there were all kinds of viking invasions to England, which changed the language in one way, then in 1066 the normans conquered English bringing in alot of french influence to the language which is why its so different. between Bede and Chaucer, Chaucer and, i dunno, Shakespeare. (circa 1600- which is Early modern, not medieval- as the language mixed.\n\nLook at the history bit of this:\n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language\n\nSo... what do you mean by medieval?  That;s the thing. But i suppose Chaucer is what you want, also, look up the "Magna Carta" from 1215, it was the legal document defining the balance of power between the King and the aristocracy at the time of King John (in case you didnt know)
441450
England's not the only place which speaks English...It's considered the 'universal' language, so you should be able to find classes, or a CD-ROM, or a pen pal.  Good luck!
1111099
England... more history.
533419
There are three choices -- Scots, Frisian and Dutch.\n\nIt just depends on how you define "different language", and if you think if matters how many speakers the language has.\n\nFirst, the "American" bit is nonsense -- American & British English are clearly dialects of one common language.\n\nLet's also discount various forms of "pidgin English" that have developed in some areas where English is not the native language.\n\nHow about GERMAN? -- No, not quite.  The language we know as German is actually "High German", so-called because it is spoken in the inland, elevated areas (originally spoken in "Prussia", the eastern part of modern Germany, this was the language of Luther), whereas English is more closely related to the "Low German" languages of the lowlands closer to the sea.\n\n1) So the first reasonable candidate is SCOTS, that is "Lowland Scots" or "Ulster Scots" (to distinguish it from the Gaelic language known as Highland Scots).   Some, however, simply treat this is a dialect of English.\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scots_language\n\n2) The next closest, and clearly a distinct language is FRISIAN, "spoken by about half a million members of an ethnic group living on the southern fringes of the North Sea in the Netherlands and Germany. "\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frisian_language\n\n3) If that's not a large enough group to count, you'd have to go with DUTCH.  (Compare also Low German dialects in the Northwestern part of Germany, such as "Plattdeutsch", and Afrikaans, which was originally a Dutch dialect.)\nhttp://ucl.ac.uk/dutch/why_dutch/index.html\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_language#Classification_and_related_languages
848320
queens english...  I think