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During the Roman Empire the pre-speakers of English roamed the northern shores of Europe.
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The Anglo-Saxons and Jutes spoke a form of German until they were exposed to Latin
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As a result of being aquantained with Roman culture. The Angles, Saxons ,and Jutes learned some elements of Latin from the Romans. Words like kettle, butter, plum, and bishop.
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The life span of Old English
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Old English was characterized by inflections and case endings for nouns. It sounded more like German sounds today since it was a German influnced language
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As Europe comes out of the ruins of the Roman Empire, the best of Old English writting emerges. Such an example is the poem Beowulf.
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Old English becomes replaced with Middle English. The Norman Conquest of 1066 influenced Old English because the Normsns were French invaders.
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Most of the Normans that invaded England came as rulers and land owners. French became and was the language of royality.
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Middle English replaced Old English. Just as Old English sounded German. Middle English adopted French and thus sounded less German. Words like tax, parliament, mutton, parlor, veal, and beef were introduced to the English Language.
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Modern English was characterized by dropping the vowel sound at the ends of some words. Therefore, the language became more simplified.
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Modern English develops
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Shakespeare made tremendous changes to the English Language. During his time, words like dance and name were pronounced as words having two syllables. However, in Modern English they have one syllable.
