The porcelain beckoning cat figurine you see in Japanese and some Chinese shops and restaurants is a Japanese tradition called a maneki-neko. It has a number for stories associated with it's origin.
The first true English language was Germanic formed when the Anglos, Saxons and Jutes invaded England driving out the Celts. Further invasions by the Norse speaking Vikings and French speaking Normans bolstered the English vocabulary as did the colonial era and industrial revolution. Durning the same time span pronunciation and spelling changes evolved internally in England.