Historical outline of Great Britain.

Britain has a very rich history. Thousands years ago, Great Britain was joined to Europe and was covered with ice. About 15,000 years ago, the weather became warmer. The ice melted and the sea level rose. Great Britain became an island about 8000 years ago.

Celtic people called Britons settles in Britain. They were warriors and farmers who were skilled metal workers.

In 55 B. C. a Roman army of 10 000 men crossed the Channel and invaded Britain. The Celts who inhabited Britain saw their ships approaching and rushed to attack the invaders in the sea as they were landing. The Celts made a great impression on the Romans, who saw them for the first time in the battle. In the next year, 54 B.C, Caesar came to Britain again, this time with larger forces (25 000 men). The Celts fought bravely for their independence but they were not strong enough.

This is how the Roman invasion of Britain started. This invasion lasted till the year of 407 A. D. As a result of the conquest signs of Roman civilization spread over Britain. There had been no towns in Britain before the Romans conquered it. As soon as they had conquered Britain they began to build towns, splendid villas, public baths as in Rome itself. York, Gloucester, Lincoln and London became the chief Roman towns. The Romans were great roadmakers and now a network of roads connected all parts of the country. The forests were cleared, swamps were drained, and corn-fields took their place. Today there are many things in Britain to remind the people of the Romans.

So, Romans brought to Britain their administration, their way of life and their language. In the old English were found much of the Latin words associated with agriculture and war. Words like camp (battle), pil (pointed stick), mil (mile) etc are early borrowing. Besides, words associated with trade enter into the English lang. With the Christianize of Britain in 597 A.D begins another phase of Latin borrowing. The words related with church, new faith, new religious appeared: Church’, ‘bishop’, ‘alms’, ‘alter’, ‘angel’, ‘canon’, ‘hymn’, ‘pope’…

In the 1^st half of the 5^th century Germanic tribes began their attacks on the British Isles. The newcomers were of the three strongest races of Germany: the Saxons, the Angles and the Jutes. The Jutes landed in Kent somewhere in 450. They were followed by the Angles and the Saxons. It was not easy to subdue (підкорити) the Celts because of a strong local opposition and it took them more than a century to do it. Eventually the invaders settled down and formed a number of small Kingdoms.

This period is characterized by the existence of the language in the form of several dialects according to 7 kingdoms that existed on the island; the vocabulary of each of them is comparatively homogeneous and contains mostly words of native origin (Indo-European, Germanic and specifically English).

The Viking invasions. Scandinavian influence on the English language.

OE and Old North were very much alike. Englishmen and Scandinavians could understand each other without any translation. Culturally these two peoples were equal. Scandinavian borrowed words were rather numerous in OE. These words were basic every day. The scand. infl. can be seen in place names.

Under the year 787 three shiploads of Northmen invaded the country. These invaders were Scandinavian tribes: The Danes, the Swedes. They inhabited the north of Europe (modern Denmark, Norway and Sweden). In the year 878 the English King Alfred the Great was obliged to recognize Danish rule over a territory covering two-thirds of modern England.

The criterion of sound in many cases may be applied in distinguishing Scandinavian words. Since in native English words the sk sound had regularly changed to sh and since the k sound before the vowels e and i had regularly changed to ch, the greater part of the Germanic words in English with the sk sound such as scare, skill, skin, skirt, sky and many words with the k sound before e and i, such as kettle, keg, kirk are to be assigned to Scandinavian origin.

The Norman Conquerors of England had originally come from Scandinavia.

In the 11^th c. they came to Britain as French speakers. Their tongue in Britain is often referred to as “Anglo-French” or “Anglo-Norman”, but may just as well be called French.

For almost three hundred years French was the official language of administration: it was the language of the king’s court, the church, the army and others. The intellectual life, literature and education were in the hands of French-speaking people. For all that, England never stopped being an English-speaking country.

The lexical borrowings in this period came equally in many spheres of life and sometimes they denoted some things really absent in the Old English. Perhaps windese – window, was a specific oval kind of an opening in the dwelling that only the Scandinavians knew, or feologa – fellow – that was a kind of specific relations between people when they shared common property and conducted some economic activity jointly. These are not originally found in the English society (lagu-law, wrang-wrong, husbonda-husband, casten- to cast, taken- to take, skye -sky).So, during the invasion such words were borrowed: they, them, their, ill, ugly, ransack, skate, skirt, sky, skill, skin, but the words now are different in meaning.

4.The State System in Great Britain, general characteristic.
Great Britain is a constitutional monarchy. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II. The queen reigns, but does not rule.

The legislative power in the country is exercised by Parliament. Parliament makes the laws of Great Britain. It consists of the queen, the House of Commons, and the House of Lords.

The House of Commons is Britain’s real governing body. It has 650 members, elected by the people. Members of the House of Commons have no fixed terms. They are chosen in a general election, which must be held at least every 5 years. But an election may be called anytime. Almost all British citizens 18 years old or older may vote.

The House of Lords is the upper house of Parliament. It was once the stronger house, but today has little power. It can delay – but never defeat – any bill. The House of Lords has about 1170 members. The people do not elect them. The House of Lords is composed of hereditary and life peers and peeresses. Their right to sit in the House passes, with their title, usually to their oldest sons.

The prime minister is usually the leader of the political party that has the most seats in the House of Commons. The monarch appoints the prime minister after each general election. The monarch asks the prime minister to form a Government. The prime minister selects about 100 ministers. From them, he picks a special group to make up the Cabinet.

The Cabinet usually consists of about 20 ministers. The ministers of the more important departments, such as the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and the Home Office, are named to every Cabinet.

The government draws up most bills and introduces them in Parliament. The queen must approve all bills passed by Parliament before they can become laws. Although the queen may reject a bill, no monarch has since the 1700’s.

Political parties are necessary to British’s system of government. The chief political parties in Britain today are the Conservative Party and the Labour Party. The Conservative Party developed from the Tories, and has been supported by wealthy people as well as professional people and farmers. The Labour Party has been supported by skilled and unskilled workers, especially union members.

The Constitution of Great Britain is not one document. Much of it is not even in writing, and so the country is said to have an unwritten constitution. Some of the written parts of Britain’s Constitution come from laws passed by Parliament. Some – from such old documents as Magna Carta, which limited the king’s power. Other written parts come from common law, a body of laws based on people’s customs and beliefs, and supported in the courts.

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