... The history of English begins a little after A.D 600 English is a Germanic Language of the Indo –European Family Indo – European English French Latin Greek Swedish Russian Hindi History of English ... bones, and threadbare, too • Modern English (1500-now) :the change was the elimination of a vowel sound and the Great Vowel Shift WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS FROM OTHER EUROPEAN LANGUAGES SPAIN ( mosquito) ... Lonely and waste is the land they inhabit, Warigeath, wulf –hleothu, windige Wolf –cliffs wild and windy headlands, naessas, Ledges of mist Where and mountain Frence fen –gelid, there forge –steam...