History of english literature

History of English

499

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English belongs to the Anglo-Frisian group, which in turn is included in the western branch of the Germanic languages, a subfamily of the Indo-European languages. It is related to the Frisian language, somewhat less to the Dutch and to certain dialects of the Low German, and maintains a connection with the modern High German.
the possible origin of the language

Old english

500

It is a variant of the western Germanic language, language that took to the island, around the year 449, the invaders jutos, Anglos and Saxons. From then on, this nation, which had been Romanized and belonged to the area of Celtic culture (especially that of the Bretons), came to be dominated by invaders who brought a language and a culture called Anglo-Saxon.

The relationship with vikings languages

800

As a result of the Viking invasions from the 8th century, the language was influenced by the ancient Norse. This is due to a series of words related to the sea and navigation, and others related to social organization, such as law, take, cut, both ('law', 'take', 'cut', 'both') and are, conjugated form of the verb to be.

The relationship with latin language

900

The language that was configured as a national language was influenced by Latin at two different times: the first, by contact with the Roman Empire; the second, with the arrival and evangelization of St. Augustine, until the eleventh century. From this period come the words related to religious terminology, such as altar, priest, psalm.

Medium english

1066

It is usually dated from the Norman conquest in 1066. At the end of the period, the language, which began to be inflected and declining, was determined by the syntactic order. By 1200 the three or four endings of the singular name had been reduced to two; the plural indication was the ending -es. Of the four declensions of the name the final -n of five cases is deleted and the declination is simplified.

use of the language (english medium)

1100

During this period the gender disappears, the dual, and the declination of the pronouns in dative and accusative takes a unique form. To avoid confusion, the pronouns of the Scandinavian they, them, are adopted and they acquire the relative value of the who, which and that forms. In the conjugation the endings disappear and a unique form is used for the singular and the plural in the past of the verbs called strong.

Modern English

1755

In 1755, Samuel Johnson published the first dictionary of English (A Dictionary of the English Language). The main difference between early modern English and late modern English is vocabulary. The modern English delayed has more words arisen from two factors: the Industrial Revolution and the technology and the British Empire, that would cover a quarter of the world with which the English will adopt many words of many countries.