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Period: 100 to 410
Roman Britian
This is the period of time in which the Romans ruled the Brythonic Celtic people of England, the Britons. The name for the island is likely to come from a mispronunciation of the name of these Celtic people. The language of the land was likely Brythonic in majority, and the question of how much an effect Roman Latin had on this/these language(s) is still a subject of debate. -
Period: 450 to Oct 20, 1066
The Anglo-Saxon Period
This is the period of time in which Anglo-Saxon kingdoms ruled mainland England and parts of southern Scotland. The language during this period is known as Old English or Anglo-Saxon. This was not a single language as we may think today, but rather a mixture of dialects that were mutually intelligible to one another. -
455
Anglo-Saxons Settle
Problems with Invasion Theory Anglo-Saxon Overview
The Anglo-Saxons brought their tribal Germanic dialects with them. These dialects would later form the foundation for Old English, once better and more secure rule of the land and people is established. -
Sep 22, 700
The Old English Language
The Anglo-Saxons and Their LanguageThe Old English language descends from West Germanic dialects, which in turn descended from Proto-Germanic, leading us closer to Proto Indo-European. The language possessed grammatical gender, noun declensions more complex than Modern English, and other featuers which do not exist in Modern English. This language is not immediately recognizable as a form of English to any speakers today. -
Oct 14, 1066
The Norman Invasion and the Battle of Hastings
William the Conquerer defeated king Harald at the Battle of Hastings. This marks the beginning of a huge change in the English language. Soon, a large number of Norse-influenced French words will be borrowed into the language, and grammatical features of Old English will be lost or reduced. -
Period: Dec 31, 1099 to Dec 31, 1501
The Middle English Period
Middle English has been influenced by French and Old Norse. The political system at the time had the nobles at the top speaking French, while the laymen still spoke English. Gradually more and more French words were borrowed, and thanks to the Viking-settled Danelaw to the Northeast, Old Norse words were borrowed as well. Interesting is that the third person plural pronoun comes from Old Norse. Languages very rarely borrow pronouns from other languages. -
May 17, 1260
Sumer is Icumen in
Sumer is Icumen in"Summer has arrived" is a composition in 13th century Middle English. The pronunciation is a good example of the changing language. Here, word order is the most important feature distinguishing the meaning of sentence elements. In Old English, noun endings and a broader set of potential word orderings were used. -
Oct 20, 1380
Chaucer begins The Canterbury Tales
One very famous example of Middle English literature are the Canterbury Tales. Students in America and England will have likely heard of these and will not have great difficulty in understanding them, though they be in a later, more recognizable form of Middle English. -
Period: Oct 20, 1501 to
The Early Modern/Modern English Period
Thanks to the Renaissance, thousands of words began pouring into English from Dutch, Portuguese, French, Greek, Italian, Latin, and numerous tribal languages around the world thanks to the British Empire. This is the time period of Shakespeare, Queen Elizabeth I, and the Americas up to the present day. -
The Battle of Maldon
The Battle of Maldon The Battle of Maldon took place between Viking invaders and Anglo-Saxon warriors on the shores of the River Blackwater in Essex. The events of that battle were composed into alliterative verse and depict the defeat of the Anglo-Saxons. This poem is a classic example of Anglo-Saxon poetry and demonstrates some of the values of their culture. -
Alfred the Great of Wessex
The language of King Alfred the Great was a dialect of Old English known as the West Saxon dialect. Because of Alfred the Great's notorious literacy, many texts were produced in Old English as well as Latin, which was used for the majority of government and religious functions. This firmly codified the West Saxon dialect and fixed it in the minds of historians. This dialect is now the most widely recognizable as Old English, though several other dialects were used as well. -
Rome leaves England
Roman Britian (43 - 410 AD)
As the Romans began to leave the island, fighting among the remaining Celtic tribes began to increase, as well as an increased threat from outside invading forces. The language at this time would be a smattering of Celtic tribal languages such as the ancestors of Welsh, Cornish, and Breton. Nothing resembling "English" has left the Continent at this point.
