English Language

By courtneymonic
  • Period: 450 to 1100

    Old English Times

    Bedight - Decorate , Bight - Bend , Besmirch - Smear , Stalwart - Strong , Swain - The lover of a girl
  • 480

    Earliest English Inscriptions

  • 725

    Beowulf's Writing

  • 792

    The Vikings raid of the British begins

  • 871

    "The anglo - saxon chronicles" begins

  • 1066

    The Norman Invasion

  • Period: 1100 to 1500

    Middle English Times

    Anon - At once ,
    Ay - Always ,
    Cas - Happening ,

    Coy - Quiet ,
    Er - Before
  • 1349

    The Black Death kills 1/3 of the British Population

  • 1362

    English is used in the English parliament for the first time

  • 1385

    English replaces Latin in schools

  • 1387

    Chaucer's Canterbury Tales

  • 1440

    The Printing Press invented

  • 1492

    The Discovery of North America

  • 1500

    Start of English Renaissance

    Early Modern
  • Period: 1500 to

    Early Modern English

    A major factor separating Middle English from Modern English is known as the Great Vowel Shift, a radical change in pronunciation during the 15th, 16th and 17th Century, as a result of which long vowel sounds began to be made higher and further forward in the mouth.

  • Shakespeare writes his first play

    Early Modern

  • American Revolution

  • Period: to

    Late Modern English

  • The Great Depression

    Late Modern

  • Shakespeare's First Folio