When was the English language first spoken?
I enjoyed the first two answers, but I think I’ll try to give you a serious one. The thing is, languages don’t just pop into existence. English is a descendent, ultimately, of Proto-Germanic, also the ancestor of German, Dutch, Swedish, Faroese and many others. Sometime in the first millennium, speakers of some closely related Germanic dialects settled in the east of Britain. It’s not exactly clear when this happened. Certainly a few came over as Roman mercenaries, and many came over after the Romans left in the 5th century. Some believe that there were considerable settlements in Eastern Britain even before then, however. It’s all a bit uncertain. These people came to call their language English (though they spelt it Englisc at first), after the Angles, one of the tribes. So was this when it was first spoken? Kind of. But remember that these tribes had all come over from mainland Europe, leaving behind other members of their tribes, who spoke the same group of dialects. It’s rather li
