Language Contact and the Origins of the Germanic Languages history of the Germanic languages but discusses the Finnic languages, Romance languages and Celtic languages extensively. Compared with other academic studies in historical linguistics, it is written in a usually plain and accessible style. Chapter 2, 'The Rise of English', focuses on the much debated question of whether English, and particularly Old English, shows any sign of contact between the West Germanic-speaking immigrants who became the Anglo-Saxons and the speakers of British Celtic and Latin whom these immigrants encountered during the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain around the fifth century CE. The chapter argues that Middle English betrays the belated appearance
Anglo-Norman literature in England, but none of the French plays acted in England in the 12th and 13th centuries has been preserved. "Adam", which is generally considered to be an Anglo-Norman mystery of the 12th century, was probably written in France at the beginning of the 13th century ("Romania" xxxii. 637), and the so-called Anglo-Norman "Resurrection" belongs also to continental French. It is necessary to state that the earliest English moralities seem to have been imitations of the French ones. Attribution Anglo-Norman literature Anglo-Norman literature is literature composed in the Anglo-Norman language developed during the period 1066–1204 when the Duchy of Normandy