Timeline: History of English | Timetoast

Period: 450 to 1100

Old English

Old English developed in Britain
Sample Words: Eald - means old
Brodor - means brother
Hus - means house
Nett - means net
Riht - means right
Period: 597 to 597

St. Augustine arrives in Britain (beginning of Christian conversion of the Anglo-Saxons)
Period: 660 to 660

“Cædmon's Hymn” composed in Old English
Period: 731 to 731

The Venerable Bede writes “The Ecclesiastical History of the English People” (in Latin)
Period: 1000 to 1000

Beowulf was written

the longest epic poem in Old English
Period: 1066 to 1066

The Norman Invasion
Period: 1100 to 1500

Middle English

Middle English was born when the Duke of Normandy invaded England and French was incorporated into the English language.
Sample Words: al, al be that - although
als, also - as, also
anon - at once
Period: 1154 to 1154

“The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle” discontinued
1209

Cambridge University
Period: 1209 to 1209

Cambridge University established
Period: 1342 to 1400

Chaucer's Canterbury Tales

http://www.librarius.com/cantales.htm
Period: 1362 to 1362

English is used in English Parliament for the first time
Period: 1492 to 1492

The discovery of North America
1500

Printing Press
Period: 1500 to 2012

Modern English

Due to the Great Vowel Shift, Modern English erupted.
Sample Words: don't - do not
cannot - something that will not
Period: 1500 to 1500

The invention of the Printing Press
Period: 1604 to 1604

Robert Cawdrey publishes the first English dictionary, “A Table Alphabeticall”
Period: 1622 to 1622

Publication of the first English-language newspaper, the “Courante” or “Weekly News”
Period: 1623 to 1623

Publication of Shakespeare's First Folio
1765

American Revolution
Period: 1765 to 1783

The American Revolution
Period: 1788 to 1788

Noah Webster publishes “The American Spelling Book”