:: wikimiki.org ::

Old Low German

Old Low German

Old Saxon, also known as Old Low German, is a Germanic language. It is the earliest recorded form of Low German, and was spoken on the north-west coast of Germany and in Denmark from the first centuries CE until the 12th century by Saxon peoples. In the 5th century CE, many Saxons, along with related peoples such as the Angles (whence Angle-land or England) and the Jutes, invaded the Celtic-held British Isles. After this emigration, the Old Saxon speech split into two distinct branches: Old English (also called Anglo-Saxon), spoken in Britain; and Low German, spoken on the continent, which split into several German and Dutch dialects. Category:Low Germanic languages

Germanic language

The Germanic languages form one of the branches of the Indo-European (IE) language family. The largest Germanic languages are English and German, with ca. 340 and 120 million native speakers, respectively. Other significant languages includes a number of Low German languages including Dutch, and the Scandinavian languages (principally Danish, Norwegian and Swedish). The SIL Ethnologue lists 53 different Germanic languages and dialects. Their common ancestor is Common Germanic, probably spoken in the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age Northern Europe. Common Germanic, and all its descendants, is characterised by a number of unique linguistic features, most famously the consonant change known as Grimm's law. Early Germanic dialects enter history with the Germanic peoples who settled in northern Europe along the borders of the Roman Empire from the 2nd century.

Writing

Our earliest evidence of Germanic is from names, recorded in the 1st century by Tacitus, and in a single instance in the 2nd century BC, on the Negau helmet. From roughly the 2nd century AD, some speakers of early Germanic dialects developed the Elder Futhark. Early runic inscriptons are also largely limited to personal names, and difficult to interpret. The Gothic language was written in the Gothic alphabet developed by Bishop Ulfilas for his translation of the Bible in the 4th century. Later, Christian priests and monks who spoke and read Latin in addition to their native Germanic tongue began writing the Germanic languages with slightly modified Latin letters, but in Scandinavia, runic alphabets remained in common use throughout the Viking Age. In addition to the standard Latin alphabet, various Germanic languages use a variety of accent marks and extra letters, including umlauts, the ß (Eszett), Ø, Æ, Å, Ð, Ȝ, and Þ and Ƿ, from runes. Historic printed German is frequently set in blackletter typefaces (e.g. fraktur or schwabacher).

Linguistic Markers

Some unique features of Germanic languages are: # The levelling of the IE tense system into past and present (or common) # The use of a dental suffix (/d/ or /t/) instead of vowel alternation (Indo-European ablaut) to indicate past tense. See: Germanic weak verb. # The presence of two distinct types of verb conjugation: weak (using dental suffix) and strong (using ablaut). English has 161 strong verbs; all are of native English origin. See: West Germanic strong verb. # The use of strong and weak adjectives. Modern English adjectives don't change except for comparative and superlative; this was not the case with Old English, where adjectives were inflected differently depending on whether they were preceded by an article or demonstrative, or not. # The consonant shift known as Grimm's Law. # A number of words with etymologies that are difficult to link to other Indo-European families, but variants of which appear in almost all Germanic languages. See Germanic substrate hypothesis. # The shifting of stress onto the root of the stem. Though English has an irregular stress, native words always have a fixed stress regardless of what's added to them. This is arguably the most important change.

History

Germanic substrate hypothesis All Germanic languages are thought to be descended from a hypothetical Proto-Germanic, united by their having been subjected to the sound shifts of Grimm's law and Verner's law. These took place probably during the Pre-Roman Iron Age of Northern Europe from ca. 500 BC, but other common innovations separating Germanic from Proto-Indo European suggest a common history of pre-Proto-Germanic speakers throughout the Nordic Bronze Age. From the time of their earliest attestation, the Germanic dialects are divided into three groups, West, East and North Germanic. Their exact relation is difficult to determine from the sparse evidence of runic inscriptions, and they remained mutually intelligible throughout the Migration period, so that some individual dialects are difficult to classify. The 6th century Lombardic language, for instance, may constitute an originally either North or East Germanic dialect that became assimilated to West Germanic as the Lombards settled at the Elbe. The Western group would have formed in the late Jastorf culture, the Eastern group may be derived from the 1st century dialect of Gotland (see Old Gutnish), leaving southern Sweden as the original location of the Northern group . The earliest coherent Germanic text preserved is the 4th century Gothic translation of the New Testament by Ulfilas. Early testimonies of West Germanic are in Old High German and Old English from about the 9th century. North Germanic is only attested in scattered runic inscriptions, as Proto-Norse, until it evolves into Old Norse by about 800. Longer runic inscriptions survive from the 8th and 9th centuries (Eggjum stone, Rök stone), longer texts in the Latin alphabet survive from the 12th century (Íslendingabók), and some skaldic poetry held to date back to as early as the 9th century. By about the 10th century, the dialects had diverged enough to make intercomprehensibility difficult. The linguistic contact of the Viking settlers of the Danelaw with the Anglo-Saxons left traces in the English language, and is suspected to have facilitated the collapse of Old English grammar that resulted in Middle English from the 12th century. The East Germanic languages were marginalized from the end of the Migration period. The Burgundians, Goths and Vandals became linguistically assimilated to their respective neighbors by about the 7th century, with only Crimean Gothic lingering on until the 18th century. During the early Middle Ages, the West Germanic languages were separated by the insular development of Middle English on one hand, and by the High German consonant shift on the continent on the other, resulting in Upper German and Low German, with graded intermediate Central German dialects. By Early modern times, the span had extended into considerable differences, ranging from Highest Alemannic in the South to Northern Low Saxon and Frisian in the North, and although both extremes are considered German, they are hardly mutually intelligible. The southern dialects have completed the second sound shift, but remained closer to the Middle German vowel system, while the northern dialects remained unaffected by the consonant shift, but simplified the vowel system. The North Germanic languages, on the other hand, remained more unified, largely retaining mutual intelligibility into modern times.

Classification

Note that divisions between subfamilies of Germanic are rarely precisely defined; most form continuous clines, with adjacent dialects being mutually intelligible and more separated ones not. Mentioned here are only the principal or unusual contemporary dialects; individual articles linked to below contain larger family trees. For example, many Plattdüütsch dialects are discussed on Plattdüütsch besides just Northern Low Saxon and Plautdietsch. Diachronic stages are listed in the main articles (such as Old English and Middle English, in the English language article)
- West Germanic language
- High Germanic languages
- German
- Central German
-
- East Central German
-
- Luxembourgish
-
- West Central German
-
- Pennsylvania German (spoken by the Amish and other groups in southeastern Pennsylvania)
- Upper German
-
- Alemannic German
-
- Swabian German, including Stuttgart
-
- Low Alemannic German, including the area of Lake Constance or Basel German
-
- Alsatian
-
- High Alemannic German, including Zürich German or Bernese German
-
- Highest Alemannic German, including the Bernese Oberland dialects or Walliser German
-
- Austro-Bavarian German
-
- North Bavarian (including Nuremberg)
-
- Middle Bavarian (including Munich and Vienna)
-
- South Bavarian (including Innsbruck, Klagenfurt and Bozen-Bolzano, Italy
-
- Hutterite German (aka "Tirolean")
- Yiddish (with a significant influx of vocabulary from Hebrew and other languages, and traditionally written in the Hebrew alphabet)
- Wymysojer (with a significant influence from Plattdüütsch, Dutch, Polish and Scots)
- Low Germanic languages
- Low Franconian
- Dutch
- Afrikaans (with a significant influx of vocabulary from other languages)
- Limburgish
- Plattdüütsch
- West Low German
-
- Northern Low Saxon language
-
- East Frisian Low Saxon
-
- Westphalian language
-
- Eastphalian language
- East Low German
-
- Plautdietsch (Mennonite "Low German")
- Insular Germanic
- Frisian
- Söl'ring
- English. Huge influx of Latinate vocabulary, mostly via Norman French. Many dialects.
- English English
-
- Northern English
-
- Northumberland (Geordie)
-
- Durham (Pitmatic)
-
- Cumbrian
-
- Yorkshire
-
- Lancashire
-
- Merseyside (Scouse)
-
- Manchester
-
- Midlands English
-
- East
-
- Derbyshire
-
- Nottingham
-
- Lincolnshire
-
- Leicestershire
-
- West
-
- Black Country (Yam Yam)
-
- Birmingham (Brummie)
-
- East Anglian
-
- Norfolk (Broad Norfolk)
-
- Southern English based
-
- Received Pronunciation
-
- Estuary English
-
- Cockney (London)
-
- Somerset
-
- Devon
-
- Cornwall
- Scottish English
- Welsh English
- Hiberno-English (Irish English)
- North American English
-
- Canadian English
-
- Boston dialect
-
- Southern American English
-
- General American
-
- New York-New Jersey English
-
- California English
-
- Hawaiian English
-
- Black English/AAVE/Ebonics
-
- Liberian English
- (Others)
-
- Australian English
-
- New Zealand English
-
- Caribbean English
-
- Jamaican English
-
- Newfoundland English
-
- Hong Kong English
-
- South African English
-
- Indian English
-
- Singlish (Singaporean English)
-
- Manglish (Malaysian English)
- Scots
- Insular Scots
- Northern Scots, including Doric
- Central Scots
- Southern Scots
- Ulster Scots
- Urban Scots (City dialects)
- Yola
- East Germanic (descending from Gothic)
- Crimean Gothic (extinct in the 1800s)
- Vandalic (extinct)
- Burgundian (extinct)
- Lombardic (extinct)
- North Germanic (descending from Old Norse):
- West (Insular) Nordic
- New Norwegian (Nynorsk) (disputed)
- Icelandic
- Faroese
- Norn (Extinct)
- East (Continental) Nordic
- Danish
- Standard Norwegian (Bokmål and Riksmål) (Dano-Norwegian)
- Swedish
- Finland-Swedish

Vocabulary comparison

Several of the terms in the table below have had semantic drift. For example, the form 'Sterben' and other terms for 'die' are cognate with the English word 'starve'. There is also at least one example of a common borrowing from a Non-Germanic source (ounce and its cognates from Latin).

Apple

Aiple

Appel

Apfel

עפּל (Epl)

Aplus

Epli

Súrepli¹

Äpple

Æble

Eple

Board

Buird

Bord

Boord

Brett

Baúrd

Borð

Bord

Bræt

Bord

Book

Beuk

Boek

Book

Buch

בוך (Buḫ)

Bóka

Bók

Bok

Bog

Bok

Breast

Breest

Bors

Borst

Bost

Brust

ברוסט (Brust)

Brusts

Brjóst

Bróst

Bröst

Bryst

Bryst/Brøst

Bryst

Brown

Broun

Bruin

Bruun

Braun

Bruns

Brúnn

Brúnur

Brun

Day

Dag

Tag

טאָג (Tog)

Dags

Dagur

Dag

Die

Dee

Sterf

Sterven

Döen/Starven

Sterben

Diwan

Deyja

Doyggja

Dö

Dø

Døy

Enough

Eneuch

Genoeg

Genug

גענוג (Genug)

Ga-nóhs

Nóg

Nóg/Nógmikið

Nog

Nok

Give

Gie

Gee

Geven

Geben

געבן (Gebn)

Giban

Gefa

Geva

Giva/Ge

Give

Gje/Gjeve

Glass

Gless

Glas

גלאָז (Gloz)

Gler

Glas

Glass/Glas

Glas

Gold

Gowd

Goud

Gold

גאָלד (Gold)

Gulþ

Gull

Guld

Gull

Hand

Haund

Hand

האַנט (Hant)

Handus

Hönd

Hond

Hand

Hånd

Hand/Hånd

Hand

Head

Heid

Kop

Hoofd/Kop

Kopp

Haupt/Kopf

קאָפּ (Kop)

Háubiþ

Höfuð

Høvd/Høvur

Huvud

Hoved

Hode

Hovud

High

Heich

Hoog

Hoch

הױך (Hoyḫ)

Háuh

Hár

Høg/ur

Hög

Høj

Høy

Høg

Home

Hame

Huis

(Huus)

Heim

הײם (Heym)

Háimóþ

Heim

Hem

Hjem

Heim

Hook

Heuk

Haak

Haken

Krókur

Krókur/Ongul

Hake

Hage

Hake/Krok

House

Hoose

Huis

Huus

Haus

הױז (Hoyz)

Hús

Hus

Many

Mony

Menige

Mennig

Manch

Manags

Margir

Mangir/Nógvir

Många

Mange

Mang ein

Moon

Muin

Maan

Mond

Ména

Tungl/Máni

Máni

Måne

Night

Nicht

Nag

Nacht

Natt / Nacht

Nacht

נאַכט (Naḫt)

Nahts

Nótt

Nátt

Natt

Nat

Natt

Nae

Nee

Niet/Nee

Nee

Nein/Nö/Nee

נײן (Neyn)

Né

Nei

Nej

Nei

Old

Auld

Oud

Oll

Alt

אַלט (Alt)

Sineigs

Gamall

Gamal/Gomul/Gamalt

Gammal

Gammel

Gammel (but: eldre, eldst)

Gammal

One

Ane

Een

Eins

אײן (Eyn)

Áins

Einn

Ein/Eitt

En/ett

Ein

Ounce

Unce

Ons

Unze

Únsa

Uns

Unse

Snow

Snaw

Sneeu

Sneeuw

Snee

Schnee

שנײ (Šney)

Snáiws

Snjór

Kavi/Snjógvur

Snö

Sne

Snø

Stone

Stane

Steen

Stein

שטײן (Šteyn)

Stáins

Steinn

Steinur

Sten

Stein

That

Dit

Dit, Dat

Dat (Dit)

Das

דאָס (Dos)

Þata

Þetta

Hatta

Det

Two

Twa

Twee

Zwei/Zwo

צװײ (Ẓvey)

Twái

Tveir

Två

Who

Wha

Wie

Wokeen

Wer

װער (Ver)

Has

Hver

Hvør

Vem

Hvem

Kven

Worm

Wirm

Wurm

Wurm, Worm

Worm

Wurm

װאָרעם (Vorem)

Maþa

Maðkur, Ormur

Maðkur/Ormur

Mask, Orm

Orm

1: The cognate 'epl(i)' means 'potato'.

External links

- [http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~kurisuto/germanic/language_resources.html Germanic Lexicon Project]
- [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_family.asp?subid=90067 Ethnologue Report for Germanic]
- [http://groups.yahoo.com/group/theudiskon Proto-Germanic Language Reconstruction Group] ko:게르만어파 ja:ゲルマン語派 zh-min-nan:Tek-gí-hē

Denmark

The Kingdom of Denmark (Danish: Kongeriget Danmark) is geographically the smallest and southernmost Nordic country, and is part of the European Union. It is located at in Scandinavia which is in northern Europe, but it does not lie on the Scandinavian Peninsula. Denmark borders the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, and consists of a peninsula attached to Northern Germany named Jutland (Jylland), the islands Funen (Fyn), Zealand (Sjælland), Bornholm and many smaller islands, the waters of which are often referred to as the Danish Archipelago. Denmark lies north of Germany (its only land neighbour), southwest of Sweden, and south of Norway. Greenland and the Faroe Islands are Crown territories of Denmark, each with political home rule.

History

:Main article: History of Denmark The origin of Denmark is lost in prehistory. The oldest Danevirke is from the 7th century, at the same time as the new Runic alphabet. Oldest city: Ribe is from about 810. Up into the 10th century the Danes were known as Vikings, together with Norwegians and Swedes, colonising, raiding and trading in all parts of Europe. Viking explorers first discovered Iceland by accident in the ninth century, en route to the Faroe Islands. Erik the Red, or Erik Thorvaldson, was exiled from the colony for manslaughter in 980, and set sail for the west, to explore the lands to the west. He established the first settelments in Greenland around this time, naming the land, according to ledgend, to attract settelers. Erik's son Leif the Lucky(Leif Ericson)finally set foot in the Americas around the year 1000. While some say he was blown off course, it is most likely that he was diliberatly seeking the land spotted by Bjarni Herjulfsson several years earlier. He established a colony at L'Anse aux Meadows, which lasted only a year. Two further attempts at colonization by his brother ended in failure. At various times the King of Denmark has ruled parts of England and Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, France, especially Normandy and the Virgin Islands, Tranquebar in India, Estonia and what is now Northern Germany. Scania, Blekinge and Halland were part of Denmark for most of its early history, but were lost to Sweden in 1658. The union with Norway was dissolved in 1814, when Norway entered a new union with Sweden (until 1905). The Danish liberal and national movement gained momentum in the 1830s, and after the European revolutions of 1848 Denmark became a constitutional monarchy June 5 1849. After the Second War of Schleswig (Danish: Slesvig) in 1864 Denmark was forced to cede Schleswig-Holstein to Prussia, in a defeat that left deep marks in the Danish national identity. After this point Denmark adopted a policy of neutrality, as a result of which Denmark stayed neutral in World War I. Following the defeat of Germany, Denmark was offered by the Versailles powers the return of Schleswig-Holstein. Fearing German irredentism Denmark refused to consider the return of Holstein and insisted on a plebiscite concerning the return of Schleswig. In 1920, following the plebiscite, Northern Schleswig was recovered by Denmark. Despite its continued neutrality Denmark was invaded by Germany (Operation Weserübung), on April 9, 1940. Though at first accorded self-rule (which ended in 1943 due to a mounting resistance movement), Denmark remained militarily occupied throughout World War II. The Danish sympathy for the Allied Cause was strong; 1,900 Danish Police Officers were arrested by the Gestapo and sent, under guard, to be interned in Buchenwald. After the war, Denmark became one of the founding members of NATO and, in 1973, joined the European Economic Community (later, the European Union).

Politics and government

:Main article: Politics of Denmark Denmark is the oldest monarchy in the world. In 1849, it became a constitutional monarchy with the adoption of a new constitution. The monarch is formally head of state, a role which is mainly ceremonial, since executive power is exercised by the cabinet ministers, with the prime minister acting as the first among equals (primus inter pares). Legislative power is vested in both the government and the Danish parliament, known as the Folketing, which consists of (no more than) 179 members. The Danish Judiciary is functionally and administratively independent of the executive and the legislature. Elections for parliament must be held at least every four years; but the prime minister can call for an earlier election, if he so decides. Should parliament succeed in a vote of no confidence against the Prime Minister the entire government resigns. The country is often run by minority governments.

Counties

:Main article: Counties of Denmark Denmark is divided into 13 counties (amter, singular: amt), and 271 municipalities (kommuner, singular kommune). The coming Danish Municipal Reform will replace the counties with five new regions and reduce the number of municipalities to 98. The new municipalities will take over most of the responsibilities of the former counties. Most of the new municipalities will have a population of at least 20,000 people. The reform will be implemented on 1 January 2007.
- Aarhus (Århus)
- Frederiksborg
- Funen (Fyn)
- Copenhagen (København)
- North Jutland (Nordjylland)
- Ribe
- Ringkjøbing
- Roskilde
- South Jutland (Sønderjylland)
- Storstrøm
- Vejle
- Viborg
- West Zealand (Vestsjælland) Three municipalities have county privileges:
- Bornholm (regional municipality)
- Copenhagen (København)
- Frederiksberg Copenhagen County comprises the municipalities of metropolitan Copenhagen, except Copenhagen Municipality and Frederiksberg Municipality. Bornholm Regional Municipality comprise the five former municipalities on the island Bornholm and the island's former county. Greenland and the Faroe Islands also belong to the Kingdom of Denmark, but have autonomous status and are largely self-governing, and are each represented by two seats in the parliament.

Geography

Faroe Islands Faroe Islands :Main article: Geography of Denmark Denmark consists of the peninsula of Jutland (Jylland) and 405 named islands. Of these, 323 are habited, with the largest being Zealand (Sjælland) and Funen (Fyn). The island of Bornholm is located somewhat east of the rest of the country, in the Baltic Sea. Many of the larger islands are connected by bridges; the Øresund Bridge connects Zealand with Sweden, the Great Belt Bridge connects Funen with Zealand, and the Small Belt Bridge connects Jutland with Funen. Ferries connect one to the smaller islands. The country is mostly flat with little elevation; the highest natural point is Møllehøj, at 170.86 metres. The climate is temperate, with mild winters and cool summers. Main cities are the capital Copenhagen (on Zealand), Aarhus, Aalborg (on Jutland) and Odense (on Fyn)..

Economy

:Main article: Economy of Denmark This thoroughly modern market economy features high-tech agriculture, up-to-date small-scale and corporate industry, extensive government welfare measures, comfortable living standards, a stable currency, and high dependence on foreign trade. Denmark is a net exporter of food and energy and has a comfortable balance of payments surplus. The Danish economy is highly unionized; 75% of its labour force [http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/01/10/business/unions2.html] are members of a union in the Danish Confederation of Trade Unions. Relationships between unions and employers are cooperative: unions have a day-to-day role in managing the workplace, and their representatives sit on most companies' board of directors. Rules on work schedules and pay are negotiated between unions and employers, with minimal government involvement. The government has been very successful in meeting, and even exceeding, the economic convergence criteria for participating in the third phase (a common European currency) of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), but Denmark, in a September 2000 referendum, reconfirmed its decision not to join the 12 other EU members in the euro. Even so, the Danish currency remains pegged to the euro. Denmark has also placed first on the Economist Intelligence Unit's "e-readiness" rankings for the past two years. "A country's "e-readiness" is a measure of its e-business environment, a collection of factors that indicate how amenable a market is to Internet-based opportunities."

Demographics

:Main article: Demographics of Denmark The majority of the population is of Scandinavian descent, with small groups of Inuit (from Greenland), Faroese, and immigrants. According to official statistics in 2003 immigrants made up 6.2% of the total population. Danish is spoken in the entire country, although a small group near the German border also speaks German. Many Danes are fluent in English as well, particularly those in larger cities and the youth, who are taught English in school. Of the religions in Denmark, according to official statistics from January 2002 84.3% of Danes are members of the Lutheran state church, the Danish People's Church (Den Danske Folkekirke), also known as the Church of Denmark. The rest are primarily of other Christian denominations and also about 2% are Muslims. For the last decade Danish People's Church has seen a decline in the number of memberships. In the later years, the old norse religion Asatru has begun to reemerge. Asatru was approved as a religious movement by the Danish government on November 8th 2003.

Culture

:Main article: Culture of Denmark Perhaps the most famous Dane is actually a mythical figure: Hamlet, the title character of William Shakespeare's greatest play, which was set in a real castle (Kronborg) in Helsingør, north of Copenhagen. The Dane most well-known in foreign countries is probably Hans Christian Andersen, a writer mostly famous for such fairy tales as The Emperor's New Clothes, The Little Mermaid, and The Ugly Duckling. Other Danes that is probably known outside of Denmark in various degrees, includes: :See also: List of Danes
- Morten Andersen, NFL kicker (Only in the United States)
- Bille August, film director
- Vitus Bering, explorer and navigator
- Karen Blixen, also known as Isak Dinesen, author
- Niels Bohr, physicist and Nobel Prize laureate
- Victor Borge, entertainer, pianist
- Tycho Brahe, astronomer
- Ole Kirk Christiansen, inventor of LEGO
- René Dif, member of the pop band Aqua
- N.F.S. Grundtvig, poet, hymnalist, educationalist
- Piet Hein, polymath
- Anders Hejlsberg, computer scientist, inventor of the C# programming language
- Georg Jensen, designer
- Søren Kierkegaard, existentialist philosopher
- Michael Laudrup, soccer player. Winner of Confederations Cup 1995
- Viggo Mortensen, actor in USA
- Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller, transport and business mogul
- Connie Nielsen, actor in USA
- Brigitte Nielsen, actress
- Carl Nielsen, composer
- Mickey Beyer-Clausen, Philanthropist, Entrepreneur
- Bjarne Riis, professional road bicycle racer, winner of the 1996 Tour de France
- Peter Schmeichel soccer player (goalkeeper). Winner of European Football Championship 1992, Confederations Cup 1995 and UEFA Champions League 1999.
- Bjarne Stroustrup, computer scientist, inventor of the C++ programming language
- Lars von Trier, film director
- Lars Ulrich, musician, member of band Metallica
- Jørn Utzon, architect
- Whigfield, singer
- Hans Christian Ørsted, physicist, discoverer of electromagnetism

Miscellaneous topics

- Courts of Denmark
- Communications in Denmark
- Danish colonization of the Americas
- Education in Denmark
- Foreign relations of Denmark
- Holidays in Denmark
- List of Danish monarchs - Danish monarchs family tree
- Danish Orders of Chivalry
- List of towns in Denmark
- Military of Denmark
- Rescue of the Danish Jews
- Stamps and postal history of Denmark
- Tourism in Denmark
- Transportation in Denmark
- Trees of Denmark
- Reporters without borders Worldwide Press Freedom Index 2004: Ranked 1 out of 166 countries (in an 8-way tie)

References

- [http://www.um.dk/Publikationer/UM/English/Denmark/index.asp In-depth description of Denmark published by the Royal Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs]

External links

- [http://www.milhist.dk/index_uk.htm Danish military history]
- [http://www.mediatico.com/en/newspapers/europe/denmark Danish Newspapers]
- [http://denmark.dk/portal/page?_pageid=374,477789&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL Official Portal of Denmark]
- [http://www.amnestyusa.org/countries/denmark/index.do Human rights reports] from Amnesty International
- [http://www.world-gazetteer.com/s/p_dk.htm List of Danish cities] from world-gazetteer.com
- [http://www.bo-k.dk/dk/ Old Denmark in Cyberspace - Information about Denmark and the Danes]
- [http://www.kms.dk/C1256C62002F8C6B/ Online charts and maps by the Danish survey authority]
- [http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=14785 Satellite image of Denmark] at NASA's Earth Observatory Category:European Union member states Category:Monarchies Category:NUTS 2 Statistical Regions of Europe fiu-vro:Taani zh-min-nan:Dan-kok als:Dänemark ko:덴마크 ms:Denmark ja:デンマーク simple:Denmark th:ประเทศเดนมาร์ก

1100s

Centuries: 11th century - 12th century - 13th century Decades: 1050s 1060s 1070s 1080s 1090s - 1100s - 1110s 1120s 1130s 1140s 1150s Years: 1100 1101 1102 1103 1104 1105 1106 1107 1108 1109 ---- Events and Trends
- 1107 Emperor Toba ascends the throne of Japan
- The great Buddhist centre of learning at Nalanda is destroyed by invaders. Category:1100s ko:1100년대

500s

Centuries: 5th century - 6th century - 7th century Decades: 450s - 460s - 470s - 480s - 490s - 500s - 510s - 520s - 530s - 540s - 550s Years: 500 501 502 503 504 505 506 507 508 509 510 ---- Events and Trends:
- Clovis I, king of the Franks, defeats the Visigoths at the battle of Vouille in 507, decisively forcing the Visigoths into Spain, and securing supremacy over Gaul
- 506 - Byzantine Empire and Persia accept a peace agreement based on status quo.
- 506 - Dara in Syria is fortified by Byzantine emperor Anastasius I as a frontier against Persia. Category:500s ja:500年代

England

:For an explanation of often-confusing terms like England, (Great) Britain and United Kingdom see British Isles (terminology). England is a nation and the largest and most populous constituent country of the United Kingdom accounting for more than 83% of the total UK population. It occupies most of the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain and shares land borders with fellow home nations Scotland, to the north, and Wales, to the west. Elsewhere, it is bordered by the sea. England is named after the Angles, one of a number of Germanic tribes believed to have originated in Angeln in Northern Germany, who settled in England in the 5th and 6th centuries. It has not had a distinct political identity since 1707, when Great Britain was established as a unified political entity; however, it has a legal identity separate from those of Scotland and Northern Ireland, as part of the entity "England and Wales;". England's largest city, London, is also the capital of the United Kingdom.

History

Main article: History of England England has been inhabited for at least 500,000 years, although the repeated Ice Ages made much of Britain uninhabitable for extended periods until as recently as 20,000 years ago. Stone Age hunter-gatherers eventually gave way to farmers and permanent settlements, with a spectacular and sophisticated megalithic civilisation arising in western England some 4,000 years ago. It was replaced around 1,500 years later by Celtic tribes migrating from Western and continental Europe, mainly from France. These tribes were known collectively as "Britons", a name bestowed by Phoenician traders — an indication of how, even at this early date, the island was part of a Europe-wide trading network. The Britons were significant players in continental politics and supported their allies in Gaul militarily during the Gallic Wars with the Roman Republic. This prompted the Romans to invade and subdue the island, first with Julius Caesar's raid in 55 BC, and then the Emperor Claudius' conquest in the following century. The whole southern part of the island — roughly corresponding to modern day England and Wales — became a prosperous part of the Roman Empire. It was finally abandoned early in the 5th century when a weakening Empire pulled back its legions to defend borders on the Continent. Unaided by the Roman army, Roman Britannia could not long resist the Germanic tribes who arrived in the 5th and 6th centuries, enveloping the majority of modern day England in a new culture and language and pushing Romano-British rule back into modern-day Wales and western extremities of England, notably Cornwall and Cumbria. Others emigrated across the channel to modern-day Brittany, thus giving it its name and language (Breton). But many of the Romano-British remained in and were assimilated into the newly "English" areas. The invaders fell into three main groups: the Jutes, the Saxons, and the Angles. As they became more civilised, recognisable states formed and began to merge with one another. (The most well-known state of affairs being the Anglo-Saxon heptarchy.) From time to time throughout this period, one Anglo-Saxon king, recognised as the "Bretwalda" by other rulers, had effective control of all or most of the English; so it is impossible to identify the precise moment when the Kingdom of England was unified. In some sense, real unity came as a response to the Danish Viking incursions which occupied the eastern half of "England" in the 8th century. Egbert, King of Wessex (d. 839) is often regarded as the first king of all the English, although the title "King of England" was first adopted, two generations later, by Alfred the Great (ruled 871–899). The principal legacy left behind in those territories from which the language of the Britons were displaced is that of toponyms. Many of the place-names in England and to a lesser extent Scotland are derived from celtic British names, including London, Dumbarton, York, Dorchester, Dover and Colchester. Several place-name elements are thought to be wholly or partly Brythonic in origin, particularly bre-, bal-, and -dun for hills, carr for a high rocky place, coomb for a small deep valley. Until recently it has been believed that those areas settled by the Anglo-Saxons were uninhabited at the time or the Britons had fled before them. However, genetic studies show that the British were not pushed out to the Celtic fringes – many tribes remained in what was to become England (see C. Capelli et al. A Y chromosome census of the British Isles. Current Biology 13, 979–984, (2003)). Capelli's findings strengthen the research of Steven Bassett of the University of Birmingham; his work during the 1990s suggests that much of the West Midlands was only very lightly colonised with Anglian and Saxon settlements.

This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands,—
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.

William Shakespeare
Richard II (Act 2, Scene 1)

The English are great lovers of themselves, and of everything belonging to them; they think that there are no other men than themselves, and no other world but England; and whenever they see a handsome foreigner, they say that 'he looks like an Englishman', and that 'it is a great pity that he should not be an Englishmen'.

Venetian ambassador to England
Early 16th century
Charlotte Augusta Sneyd
Italian Relations of England (p. 20)

Richard II] Richard II] In 1066, William the Conqueror and the Normans conquered the existing Kingdom of England and instituted an Anglo-Norman administration and nobility who, retaining proto-French as their language for the next three hundred years, ruled as custodians over English commoners. Although the language and racial distinctions faded rapidly during the middle ages, the class system born in the Norman/Saxon divide persisted longer — arguably with traces lasting to the modern day. While Old English continued to be spoken by common folk, Norman feudal lords significantly influenced the language with French words and customs being adopted over the succeeding centuries evolving to a Romance-Germanic hybrid of Middle English widely spoken in Chaucer's time. England came repeatedly into conflict with Wales and Scotland, at the time an independent principality and an independent kingdom respectively, as its rulers sought to expand Norman power across the entire island of Britain. The conquest of Wales was achieved in the 13th century, when it was annexed to England and gradually came to be a part of that kingdom for most legal purposes, although in the modern era it is more usually thought of as a separate nation (fielding, for example, its own athletic teams). Norman power in Scotland waxed and waned over the years, with the Scots managing to maintain a varying degree of independence despite repeated wars with the English. Although it was on the whole only a moderately successful power in military terms, England became one of the wealthiest states in medieval Europe, due chiefly to its dominance in the lucrative wool market. The failure of English territorial ambitions in continental Europe prompted the kingdom's rulers to look further afield, creating the foundations of the mercantile and colonial network that was to become the British Empire. The turmoil of the Reformation embroiled England in religious wars with Europe's Catholic powers, notably Spain, but the kingdom preserved its independence as much through luck as through the skill of charismatic rulers such as Elizabeth I. Elizabeth's successor, James I was already king of Scotland (as James VI); and this personal union of the two crowns into the crown of Great Brittaine was followed a century later by the Act of Union 1707, which formally unified England, Scotland and Wales into the Kingdom of Great Britain. This later became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1801 to 1927) and then the modern state of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (1927 to present) For post-unification history, see history of the United Kingdom.

Politics

Main article: Politics of the United Kingdom, Government of England Since the promulgation of the 1284 Statute of Rhuddlan and the Laws in Wales Acts 1535-1542, Wales has shared a legal identity with England as the joint entity of England and Wales. The Act of Union with the Kingdom of Scotland in 1707 created the Kingdom of Great Britain, subsuming England, Wales and Scotland into a single political entity. Scotland, along with Northern Ireland, retain separate legal systems. The duchy of Cornwall also retains some unique rights. All of Great Britain has been ruled by the government of the United Kingdom since that date, although in 1999 the first elections to the newly created Scottish Parliament and National Assembly for Wales left England as the only part of the Union with no devolved assembly or parliament. As all legislation for England is passed by Parliament at Westminster there are some complaints about the ability of non-English Members of Parliament to influence purely English affairs. This apparent anomaly has been highlighted by both English and non-English politicians, often those opposed to devolution, and has become popularly known as the West Lothian question. Administratively, England is something of an anomaly within the UK. Unlike the other three nations, it has no local parliament or government and its administrative affairs are dealt with by a combination of the UK government, the UK parliament and a number of England-specific quangos, such as English Heritage. There are calls from some for a devolved English Parliament and from others for the dissolution of the UK and an independent England. The current Labour government favoured the establishment of regional administration, claiming that England was too large to be governed as a sub-state entity. A referendum on this issue in North East England on 4 November 2004 decisively rejected the proposal. Some criticised the English regional proposals for not decentralising enough, saying that they amounted not to devolution, but to little more than local government reorganisation, with no real power being removed from central government. The English regions would not even have had the limited powers of the Welsh Assembly, much less the tax-varying and legislative powers of the Scottish Parliament. Rather, power was simply re-allocated within the region, with little new resource allocation and no real prospects of Assemblies being able to change the pattern of regional aid. Responsibility for regional transport was added to the proposals late in the process. This was perhaps crucial in the North East, where resentment at the Barnett Formula, which delivers greater regional aid to adjacent Scotland, was a significant impetus for the North East devolution campaign. There has also been a campaign for a Cornish assembly along Welsh lines by groups such as Mebyon Kernow, which recently collected 50,000 signatures in support. Some eurosceptics believe that the establishment of English regions as administrative entities is designed to undermine the concept of English nationhood and more easily fit England into a European federal model. Conventionally the national capital of England is London, although technically it would be more exact to call London the capital of "England and Wales" given England's lack of a distinctive political identity separate from the Principality. Winchester served as the country's first national capital until some time in the late 11th century after the Norman Conquest. The City of London became England's commercial capital, while the City of Westminster (where the Royal court was located) became the political capital. These roles have, broadly speaking, been maintained to the present day.

Subdivisions

Main article: Subdivisions of England Historically, the highest level of local government in England was the county. These divisions had emerged from a range of units of old, pre-unification England, whether they were Kingdoms, such as Essex and Sussex; Duchies, such as Yorkshire, Cornwall and Lancashire or simply tracts of land given to some noble, as is the case with Berkshire. Until 1867, they were subdivided into smaller divisions called hundreds. These counties all still exist in, or near to, their original form as the traditional counties. In many places, however, they have been heavily modified or abolished outright as administrative counties. This came about due to a number of factors. The fact that the counties were so small meant, and still means, that there was no regional government able to coordinate an overarching plan for the area. This was especially true in the metropolitan areas surrounding the cities, as the county lines were usually drawn up before the industrial revolution and the mass urbanisation of England. The solution was the creation of large metropolitan counties centred on cities. These were later broken up, with several other counties, into unitary authorities, unifying the county and district/borough levels of government. London is a special case, and is the one region which currently has a representative authority as well as a directly elected mayor. The 32 London boroughs and the Corporation of London remain the local form of government in the city. Other than Greater London, the official regions are:
- North East England
- North West England
- Yorkshire and the Humber
- West Midlands
- East Midlands
- East of England
- South West England
- South East England Outside London the regions have very little power and are not accountable to elected representatives; regional authority is placed in the hands of unelected assemblies. If, as now seems unlikely, regions opt to replace these bodies with elected assemblies, local government in England will remain as variable and, some might say, as confusing as ever

Geography

Main articles: Geography of the United Kingdom, Geography of England Geography of England England comprises the central and southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain, plus offshore islands of which the largest is the Isle of Wight. It is bordered to the north by Scotland and to the west by Wales. It is closer to continental Europe than any other part of Britain, divided from France only by a 38 km (24 statute mile or 21 nautical mile) sea gap. Most of England consists of rolling hills, but it is more mountainous in the north with a chain of low mountains, the Pennines, dividing east and west. The dividing line between terrain types is usually indicated by the Tees-Exe line. There is also an area of flat, low-lying marshland in the east, much of which has been drained for agricultural use. The list of England's largest cities is much debated because in British English the normal meaning of city is "a continuously built-up urban area"; these are hard to define and various other definitions are preferred by some people to boost the ranking of their own city. London is by far the largest English city. Manchester and Birmingham vie for second place. A number of other cities, mainly in the north of England, are of substantial size and influence. These include: Liverpool, Leeds, Newcastle, Nottingham, Bristol and Sheffield Using the standard U.S. city limits definition of a city the top six are: Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield, Bradford, Liverpool and Manchester. Note that London is not on this list (Greater London is a region and the City of London is tiny), and that one of the two candidates for the status of England's "second city", Manchester, is down in sixth. In the UK, this method of ranking cities is generally used only by people whose own city is promoted by it. The Channel Tunnel, near Folkestone, links England to the European mainland. The English/French border is halfway along the tunnel. The largest harbour in England is at Poole, on the south-central coast. Internationally, it is the second largest harbour in the world, although this fact is disputed (See harbors for a list of other potential second largest harbours) The highest temperature ever recorded in England is 38.5 °C (101.3 °F) on August 10, 2003 in Kent. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/3153532.stm]. The lowest temperature ever recorded in England is -26.1 °C (-15.0 °F) on January 10, 1982 at Newport in Shropshire. [http://www.metoffice.com/climate/uk/location/england/#temperature]

Major rivers

Shropshire.]]
- Thames
- Severn
- Trent
- Humber
- Yorkshire Ouse
- Tyne
- Mersey
- Dee
- Avon Main article: Waterways in the United Kingdom

Major Conurbations

:See main article: List of towns in England The largest cities in England are much debated but according to the urban area populations (continuous built up areas) these would be the 15 largest conurbations. (Population figures taken from 2001 census) #Greater London (8,278,251) #West Midlands (2,284,093) #Greater Manchester (2,244,931) #Leeds/Bradford (1,499,465) #Tyneside (879,996) #Liverpool (816,216) #Nottingham (666,358) #Sheffield (640,720) #Bristol (551,066) #Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton (461,181) #Portsmouth (442,252) #Leicester (441,213) #Bournemouth/Poole (383,713) #Reading (369,804) #Teesside (365,323)

Economy

Main article: Economy of England

Demographics

Main articles: Demographics of England, Population of England England is both the most populous and the most ethnically diverse nation in the United Kingdom with around 49 million inhabitants, of which roughly a tenth are from non-White ethnic groups. It is one of the most densely populated countries in Europe, second only to the Netherlands. This population is made up of, and descended from, immigrants who have arrived over millennia. The principal waves of migration have been in c. 600 BC (Celts), the Roman period (garrison soldiers from throughout the Empire), 350–550 (Angles, Saxons, Jutes), 800–900 (Vikings, Danes), 1066 (Normans), 1650–1750 (European refugees and Huguenots), 1840–1850 (Irish), 1880–1940 (Irish, Jews), 1950— (Irish, Caribbeans, Africans, South Asians), 1985— (citizens of European Community member states especially Ireland, East Europeans, Iranians, Kurds, refugees). The general prosperity of England as the largest partner of the UK, has also made it a destination for economic migrants particularly from Ireland and Scotland. This segment of English homogeneous society continues to create a diverse and dynamic language that is widely used internationally. The other image of foreign ethnic components in England is still mostly seen as a legacy of the British Empire; especially the Commonwealth of Nations.

English identity

The simplest view is that an English person is someone who is from England and holds British nationality, regardless of his or her racial origin. However, inhabitants of England quite commonly refer to themselves as "British" rather than "English"; centuries of English dominance within the United Kingdom has created a situation where to be English is, as a linguist would put it, an "unmarked" state (i.e. a British person, institution, custom, city, etc. is assumed English unless specified otherwise). The English frequently include their neighbours in the general term "British" while the Scots and Welsh, proud of their separate identities, tend to be more forward about referring to themselves by one of those more specific terms. Although currently a part of England, a notable percentage of those living in Cornwall feel similarly, considering themselves Cornish first. One significant exception is in Northern Ireland, where the Unionist community tend to identify very strongly as "British" (Republicans living in the province are more likely to consider themselves "Irish"), and there is not a "Northern Ireland" or "Northern Irish" identity to the same extent as there is (e.g.) a Scottish one. A person, therefore, using the term "English" to describe him or herself (regardless of personal history) may be going out of his or her way to do so; hence he or she may also be seen (rightly or wrongly, and not necessarily pejoratively) as nationalistic. While Scottish, Welsh, Irish and Cornish patriotism are widely exhibited, specifically English patriotism has often been viewed with suspicion, and most English people feel more comfortable identifying themselves with Britain as a whole. However, this may be to avoid being seen as bullies by their neighbours. The extent to which specifically English patriotism is linked to a right-wing xenophobic agenda has also generated discomfort. The appropriation of English symbols by racist far-right organisations such as the National Front made many people uncomfortable with expressions of Englishness. In recent years, English identity has recently been a topic of debate in the national press, with many English people trying to "reclaim" the term and the flag from the far-right. See English nationalism. One notable exception to the above is in relation to sports, in particular Association football, Rugby football and to a lesser extent Cricket. Transient successes are often accompanied by a revival of the use of the "St George's Cross". While it has not yet replaced the "Union Flag" its use is on the increase. Many English people who have spent a lot of time overseas fall into the habit of referring to themselves as "English". It is the most recognisable designation by speakers of many languages, especially where their own language uses a similar word. Even in other English-speaking countries, people are often perplexed by concepts of "British" or the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland". All these distinctions are only possible because there is no "English citizenship" or legal definition of Englishness. Moreover, the hazy understanding many people have of the distinction between "England" and "Britain" compounds the confusion. If in doubt, refer to an "English" person as "British": this will always be correct. It may not be as precise as "English", but it will avoid offence in the event the person is actually from a different part of Britain.

Culture

Union Flag Main article: Culture of England
- English literature
- Sir Thomas Browne
- Geoffrey Chaucer
- John Milton
- William Shakespeare
- Jane Austen
- Mary Shelley
- Charles Dickens
- Thomas Hardy
- George Orwell
- J. R. R. Tolkien
- C. S. Lewis
- Douglas Adams
- List of national parks of England and Wales
- Food and Drink
- English folklore
- English art
- English school of painting
- Music of England

Languages

Music of England.]] As its name suggests, the English language, today spoken by hundreds of millions of people around the world, originated as the language of England, where it remains the principal tongue today (although not officially designated as such). An Indo-European language in Anglo-Frisian branch of the Germanic family, it is closely related to Scots and Frisian. As the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms merged into England, "Old English" emerged; some of its literature and poetry has survived. Used by aristocracy and commoners alike before the Norman Conquest (1066), English was displaced in cultured contexts under the new regime by the Norman French language of the new Anglo-French aristocracy. Its use was confined primarily to the lower social classes while official business was conducted in a mixture of Latin and French. Over the following centuries, however, English gradually came back into fashion among all classes and for all official business except certain traditional ceremonies. (Some survive to this day.) But Middle English, as it had by now become, showed many signs of French influence, both in vocabulary and spelling. During the Renaissance, many words were coined from Latin and Greek origins; and more recent years, Modern English has extended this custom, being always remarkable for its far-flung willingness to incorporate foreign-influenced words. The law does not recognise any language as being official, but English is the only language used in England for general official business. The other national languages of the UK (Welsh, Irish Gaelic and Scottish Gaelic) are confined to their respective nations, and only Welsh is treated by law as an equal to English (and then only for organisations which do business in Wales). The only non-Anglic native spoken language in England is the Cornish language, a Celtic language spoken in Cornwall, which became extinct in the 19th century but has been revived and is spoken in various degrees of fluency by around 3,500 people. This has no official status (unlike Welsh) and is not required for official use, but is nonetheless supported by national and local government under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Cornwall County Council has produced [http://www.cornwall.gov.uk/cornish/strategy/english/engl01.htm a draft strategy] to develop these plans. There is, however, no programme as yet for public bodies to actively promote the language. Scots is spoken by some adjacent to the Anglo-Scottish Border. Most deaf people within England speak British sign language (BSL), a sign language native to Britain. The British Deaf Association estimates that 70,000 people throughout the UK speak BSL as their first or preferred language, but does not give statistics specific to England. Like Cornish, BSL has no official status, but has been granted a degree of recognition by the government. The BBC broadcasts several of its programmes with BSL interpreters. Different languages from around the world, especially from the former British Empire and the Commonwealth of Nations, have been brought to England by immigrants. Many of these are widely spoken within ethnic minority communities, including Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Gujarati, Chinese and Vietnamese. These are often used by official bodies to communicate with the relevant sections of the community, particularly in big cities, but this occurs on an "as needed" basis rather than as the result of specific legislative ordinances. Other languages have also traditionally been spoken by minority populations in England, including Romany. Despite the relatively small size of the nation, there are a large number of distinct English regional accents. Those with particularly strong accents may not be easily understood elsewhere in the country.

Nomenclature

The country is named after the Angles, one of several Germanic tribes who settled the country in the 5th and 6th centuries. There are two distinct linguistic patterns for the name of the country. The majority of European languages use names akin to "England":
- "England" (Danish, German, Swedish, Norwegian)
- "Engeland" (Dutch)
- "Inglismaa" (Estonian)
- "Angleterre" (French)
- "Inghilterra" (Italian)
- "Inglaterra" (Spanish, Portuguese, Galician)
- "Anglia" (Hungarian, Polish, Romanian, Albanian)
- "Anglija" (Russian, Slovene, Lithuanian, Ukrainian)
- "Engleska" (Croatian, Serbian)
- "Αγγλία" ("Anglía") (Greek)
- "Englanti" (Finnish) The Celtic names are quite different:
- "Bro-Saoz" (Breton)
- "Pow Sows" (Cornish)
- "Sasana" (Irish)
- "Sasainn" (Scottish Gaelic)
- "Lloegr" (Welsh) — but "Saeson" for the inhabitants.
- "Sostyn" (Manx Gaelic) Except for Lloegr, which is an ancient geographic term, these names are all derived from the Saxons, another family of Germanic tribes which arrived at about the same time as the Angles. See: Wiktionary:England for a further list of non-English names for England. "England" is sometimes mistakenly used to refer to the entire United Kingdom, the island of Great Britain, or the British Isles. This may offend people from other parts of the UK. Frequently the English use the less-specific "Britain" or "the UK", even when "England" is technically correct and commonly also use "England" when "Britain" would be correct. Alternative names include:
- the slang "Blighty", from the Hindustani "bila yati" meaning "foreign"
- "Albion", an ancient name popularised by Pliny the Elder and Ptolemy in the 1st century. Supposedly referring to the white (Latin alba) cliffs of Dover, this term has also been interpreted as a relative of Alba, today the Scots Gaelic name for Scotland. Whatever its origins, "Albion" originally referred to the whole island of Great Britain and is still sometimes seen that way today — but is more often used for England.
- More poetically, England has been called "this sceptred isle...this other Eden" and "this green and pleasant land", quotations respectively from the poetry of William Shakespeare (in Richard II) and William Blake (And did those feet in ancient time). The inhabitants of England are the English. The slang terms sometimes used for them include "Sassenachs" (from the Scots Gaelic), "Limeys" (in reference to the citrus fruits carried aboard English sailing vessels to prevent scurvy) and "Pom/Pommy" (used in Australian English and New Zealand English), but these may be perceived as offensive. Also see alternative words for British.

Old Low German

Germanic language

Writing

Linguistic Markers

History

Classification

Vocabulary comparison

See also

External links

Denmark

History

Politics and government

Counties

Geography

Economy

Demographics

Culture

Miscellaneous topics

See also

References

External links

1100s

500s

England

History

Politics

Subdivisions

Geography

Major rivers

Major Conurbations

Economy

Demographics

English identity

Culture

Languages

Nomenclature

Symbols