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The Norman Conquest marks the beginning of the Middle English, and it lasted until the late 1400's. During this time, English is heavily influenced by Norman French. English changed a great deal in this period moving from a mostly synthetic language to a predominently analytic one.
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Canterbury Tales PrologueThe Canterbury Tales are possibly the most famous literature form Middle English.
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The Great Vowel Shift took place mostly in the 15th century and its completion marks the end of Middle English and the beginning of Early Modern English.
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Early Modern English lasted from the late 15th century through the late 17th century.
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Sonnet 116
Shakespeare is arguabley the most famous playwright and author to every use the English language. While many English speakers today have some difficulty understanding his vocabulary and syntax, he was writing in Early Modern English. -
The "Table Alphabeticall" was the very first English dictionrary ever published.
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Modern English began in the late 17th century.
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Samuel Johnson published the first full featured dictionry of English standardizing English spelling and vocabulary to a large extent while Lowth, Murray, and Priestly began publishing grammar texts in an attempt to establish standardization of written and spoken English.
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The only surviving manuscropt of Beowulf was written sometime between 975 and 1025.
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The Lord's Prayer in Old English
With the introdcution of Christianity, English begins to borrow Latina and Greek vocabulary. Monasteries are built, and the work or copying and writing manuscripts in English begins. -
Old English began with the settlement of Anglo-Saxons, a Germanic people group, in the British Isles.
