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Old English started when 3 Germanic Tribes invaded Britain. Before this, most of the Britain Inhabitants spoke a Celtic language, but the tribes (from what is now known as Northern Germany and Denmark) pushed them west.
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Old English is completely foreign from today's English, and lasted from 410-1100
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Alfred is known as the "Father of English." His English foreign to ours, with 0 influences from French and Latin.
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This is a poem written in Old English. The exact date it was written is unknown, but scholars believe it was sometime between 975 and 1025.
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William The Conqueror (from France) invaded and conquered England. French became the main language of the upper class until the 14th century when English became dominant again, but now with many french words added.
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The Domesday Book was a survey that went around in England about the raise of taxes. This had Old English writing on it.
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Middle English is where French got brought into the language, but is still unrecognizable from today's language.
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Parliaments were issued by the King of England, and resulted in Middle English being written down more often.
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The plague wiped out 1/3 of the British population, changing many things.
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The invention of the printing press meant there was now a common language in print. This caused books to drop in price and inspired more people to learn to read. It also brought standardization to the English language.
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The Great Vowel shift has a great impact on the way our language sounds today. During this movement, vowel sounds became shorter.
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This consists of a collection of 24 stories. The tales follow a group of pilgrims on their journey. The story covers many social issues of the Medieval times it was written in, and things such as human immorality, the troubles of lust, religion, and honor/honesty.
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Modern English Dates back to 1500, and continues on today. Many things happened early in this time period to make the language remain almost the same.
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In this year, William Tyndale printed his English translation of the New Testament of “The Bible” which was before written in Hebrew/Greek. This was a big deal because Religion had a big impact on many people.
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When North America was colonized, many English phrases/words froze. For example, people in England now say "rubbish" but Americans still say "Trash." American English is closer to Old English than Britain is.
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The first English Dictionary was invented in 1604 and has similar words as today.
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Shakespeare's First Folio is the first written collection of his plays. These did not get published until 8 years after his death, and is considered one of the most influential books in the English language.
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The American Revolution allowed writers to break free from topics such as religion, and write in a style that was purely based on American Experiences.
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The post office allowed people to send written language to others, which briefly influenced Modern English.
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The invention of the telephone caused language to reach people from across the country/world and have different kinds of English influence normal people.
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This allowed Hollywood to have an influence on the English Language.
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Texting allowed the language to become loose and care free. People used phrases such as "brb" or purposefully misspelled words.
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Today there is many slang words such as "swag" and "on fleek" that have different meanings, or did not exist before. A lot of these slang words have to do with social media.
