The first inhabitants of the British Isles were not English speakers at all. They were part of an ethnic grouping known as the Celts.
However, not many Celtic loan words survived to become a part of Anglo-Saxon English. The Old English word rice--a noun meaning "kingdom" (cf. Ger. Reich), is almost certainly Celtic in origin, but this word was probably adapted by Germanic tribes on the continent long before the Anglo-Saxons settled in Britain. A few other Old English words such as ambeht ("servant"), and dun ("hill, down") might be Celtic loan-words, but scholars are still uncertain. Algeo (277) suggests about a dozen other Celtic words are probably genuine borrowings from the Celtic peoples during the Anglo-Saxon period, including these mostly archaic terms:
The first inhabitants of the British Isles were not English speakers at all. They were part of an ethnic grouping known as the Celts.However, not many Celtic loan words survived to become a part of Anglo-Saxon English. The Old English word rice--a noun meaning "kingdom" (cf. Ger. Reich), is almost certainly Celtic in origin, but this word was probably adapted by Germanic tribes on the continent long before the Anglo-Saxons settled in Britain. A few other Old English words such as ambeht ("servant"), and dun ("hill, down") might be Celtic loan-words, but scholars are still uncertain. Algeo (277) suggests about a dozen other Celtic words are probably genuine borrowings from the Celtic peoples during the Anglo-Saxon period, including these mostly archaic terms:
การแปล กรุณารอสักครู่..