History of English

  • 410

    Chapter I Anglosaxons - Jutes

    Chapter I     Anglosaxons - Jutes
    Romans leave Britain, Germanic tribes like the Anglos and the Saxons arrived to Britain and were given this term Anglo-Saxon. The Anglo-Saxon language was ver useful. In honor of the Anglo-Saxon Gods, four days of the week were named.During this time, Missionaries brought in Latin as Christianity and spread it. Also, Vikings came with other words and added like 2000 words to English.
  • 1066

    Chapter II The Norman Conqueror

    Chapter II  The Norman Conqueror
    William the Conquer invades England bringing along the French language.Therefore, English absorbed around 10, 000 new words from the Normand. After the English and French which lasted 116 years, English took over as the main language.
  • 1500

    Chapter III Shakespeare

    Chapter III   Shakespeare
    2,000 new words and phrases were invented by William Shakespeare. His work showed the world how rich and vibrant the English language was, with limitless expressive, emotional content and power.
  • Chapter IV The King James Bible

    Chapter IV   The King James Bible
    A new translation of the bible was done by a group of scribes, it was an extension of King James translation. The language contained in the Bible along with its ideas extended the ends of Great Britain.
  • Chapter V The English of Science

    Chapter V  The English of Science
    Britain became full of physicists like Hooke (1635-1703), Boyle (1627-1691), Newton (1643-1727). Also the Royal society was formed in 1660, and worked in Latin, but they realized that English could transformed the comprehension of the world much faster by talking in their own language. Science was discovering things faster, words like acid (1626), gravity (1641), electricity (1646), and pendulum (1660) had to be invented. Scientists became aware of the human body with new words.
  • Chapter VI English and Empire

    Chapter VI  English and Empire
    Great Britain invades other parts of the world to seek for land, gold and natural resources, and total obedience to the crown as well as getting new language in exchange.
  • Chapter VII The Age of the Dictionary

    Chapter VII  The Age of the Dictionary
    A new breed of men came in called Lexicographers; one of the greatest was Dr. Johnson that wrote a dictionary that took him 8 years. It contained 42, 773 entries. In 1857 a new book was started that would become the Oxford English Dictionary. It took 70 years to write after a few editors resigned.
  • Chapter VIII American English

    Chapter VIII American English
    When the English first landed in America, they needed to borrow words to recognize new animals and plants. Immigrants like the Dutch shared new words like coleslaw (1794) and cookies (1703), then Germans arrived selling pretzels (1856) and the Italians arrived woth their pizza (1935), pasta (1874), and mafia (1875).
  • Chapter IX Internet English

    Chapter IX Internet English
    The first e-mail was sent, soon after that came the Internet: a free global space to share information, ideas, and fun pictures. Conversations got shorter, and people did not bother to write full sentences instead they started using abbreviations like BTW (By the way), or LOL (Laughing out loud). which also became part of the conversation.
  • Chapter X Global English

    Chapter X Global English
    Nowadays around 1.5 billion people speak English, from these 1/4 are native speakers, another 1/4 speak it as their second language, and half are able to speak its fundamentals. In the 1500 years of the languages evolution has managed to invade, absorb, and steal to make it the language it is today, and establish itself as a global institution.