How Two Barbarians Set the Course of the English Language

German and French figure prominently in English because of them

So much of history is random. Take World War I, which was caused by the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria in Sarajevo. On that fateful day in 1914, a group of young Serbian nationalists tried to execute Ferdinand by throwing a bomb at his car. The attempt failed and the would-be assassins dispersed to avoid capture.

Later that day, Ferdinand was leaving Sarajevo when his driver took a wrong turn. Upon being told he’d taken a wrong turn, the driver began backing up. While doing so the car stalled. As fate would have it, one of the would-be assassins, Gavrilo Princip, was at a deli on the street the driver had turned onto. Princip saw the stalled car, walked out of the deli, and shot Ferdinand from close range. One month later, the world was at war, the bloodiest in human history. All because a guy took a wrong turn and his car stalled.

Similarly, much of the English language spoken today is the product of two random historical events, both generated by barbarian leaders. How?

Germanic influence

First, Alaric, leader of the barbarian Visigoths, is directly responsible for German having the largest influence on the…