The Germanic Language Family in England

In this Introduction, we will broadly sketch what type of language English is, the populations who are considered (and consider themselves) to speak English, and the historically motivated “stages” of English (Old, Middle, Modern). Then, using these broad ideas, we will formulate the main questionquestion treated in this study: are Old and Middle English simply different diachronic stages of a single language, or are they two closely related languages that in fact have separate historical sources?