English Language

  • Germanic Invasion.
    450

    Germanic Invasion.

    Germanic tribes invaded Britain (Saxons coming from the north of Germany, the Angles from the area now is south of Denmark and the Jules from the norther parts of Denmark)
  • Period: 450 to 1066

    Old English.

    The Middle English period was marked by significant changes in the English language. Because of the Norman Conquest and the circumstances afterward and the way that the language began changing during the Old English period, Middle English had changes in its grammar and its vocabulary.
  • The Spread of Christianity.
    597

    The Spread of Christianity.

    The spread of Christianity, Saint Agustine arrived to England and the Anglo-Saxon borrowed a number of latin words from the Rome Christianity:
    Munuc (monk), Scól (school) , Chest (cest)
  • Anglo-Saxon divided England.
    600

    Anglo-Saxon divided England.

    The Anglo-Saxon divided the country into five kingdoms, there were Northumbria, Mercia, Wessex, Kent and Anglia.
  • Beowulf
    700

    Beowulf

    Beowulf (a long poem and the highest achievement of Old English) which tell the story of a brave man from Scandinavia called Beowulf
  • The vikings.
    787

    The vikings.

    The Vikings came from Denmark and Norway; they made many small attacks on England.
  • Anglo-Saxon and Vikings.
    870

    Anglo-Saxon and Vikings.

    .The Anglo-Saxon king, Alfred the Great made an agreement with the Viking to divide England in two parts, as result many words from Old Nurse entered Old English:
    Syster (Old Nurse) replaced sweator (Old English)
  • The Anglo-saxon Chronicle
    900

    The Anglo-saxon Chronicle

    The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle was a diary of events, written by monks in different parts of England which started in the year 1 AD with the birth of Christ and it’s important because it was the first book of its kind in Western Europe.
  • Norman conquest
    1066

    Norman conquest

    The beginning of the Middle English period coincides with the Battle of Hastings the key event in the Norman conquest of England
  • The borrowing of French into Middle English first phase
    1066

    The borrowing of French into Middle English first phase

    The first phase consists of only 1,000 borrowed words
  • early middle english
    1100

    early middle english

    English in decline. During which the Old English system of writing was still in use.
  • Period: 1100 to 1500

    Middle English

    The first phase saw a decline of English, from about 1100 to about 1250 in a second phase English was sort of resurrected and we can label it as the essence of English from about 1250 to about 1400, and the third phase well is associated with a triumph of the English language over the French language from about 1400 to about 1500
  • John Lackland lost his English possessions
    1204

    John Lackland lost his English possessions

    Mark the turning point when King John nicknamed John Lackland lost his English possessions in France leading to a gradual decline of French as an official language in England
  • The central middle english
    1250

    The central middle english

    which was marked by the gradual formation of literary dialects, the use of an orthography greatly influenced by the Anglo-Norman writing system, the loss of pronunciation of final unaccented -e, and the borrowing of large numbers of Anglo-Norman words; the period was especially marked by the rise of the London dialect, in the hands of such writers as John Gower and Geoffrey Chaucer.
  • he borrowing of French into Middle English second phase
    1250

    he borrowing of French into Middle English second phase

    the second phase consists of 10,000 borrowed words
  • the Hundred Years War
    1337

    the Hundred Years War

    Which led to a loss of all Continental Holdings without which the English no longer had important reasons for learning and using French. (1337.1437)
  • Late middle english
    1400

    Late middle english

    which was marked by the spread of the London literary dialect and the gradual cleavage between the Scottish dialect and the other northern dialects.
    Among the chief characteristic differences between Old and Middle English were the substitution of natural gender in Middle English for grammatical gender and the loss of the old system of declensions in the noun and adjective and, largely, in the pronoun.
  • The introduction of the printing press
    1476

    The introduction of the printing press

    The introduction of the printing press to England in 1476 by William Caxton which led to a standardization of the English language.
  • ascendancy of Henry VIII
    1509

    ascendancy of Henry VIII

    Ascendancy of Henry VIII to the throne .
    Henry VIII is best known for his six wives, whose fate is described in the famous rhyme: "Divorced, Beheaded, Died: Divorced, Beheaded, Survived".
  • Period: 1509 to

    Modern English

    Modern English is conventionally defined as the English language since about 1450 or 1500.
  • the dictionary

    the dictionary

    The first book generally regarded as the first English dictionary was written as Robert Cawdrey, a schoolmaster and former Church of England clergyman, in 1604 Cawdrey made use of wordlists published earlier in educational texts
  • completion of the great vowel shift and the beginning of the scientific age

    completion of the great vowel shift and the beginning of the scientific age

    The end of the Early Modern English period is marked by the completion of the great vowel shift and the beginning of the scientific age at around 1700. Most influential with regard to Early Modern English were the works of William Shakespeare.