HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

  • 1564 BCE

    WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

    There are many important authors in Modern English, but one of the most famous writers is William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616). Do you know any other writers from
  • 1476 BCE

    the printing press

    With the invention of the printing press in 1476, publishing books in English became very popular.
  • 1400 BCE

    MIDDLE ENGLISH

    There were no more invasions of England. English became more important than French. A number of books were published in Middle English.
    The most famous is a book of stories called
    The Canterbury Tales (1400) by Geoffrey Chaucer.
  • 1066 BCE

    the normans

    In 1066, the Normans invaded England from Normandy in France.
    They spoke an earlier version of French and this became the language of prestige in England.
  • 800 BCE

    the vikings

    From about 800, the Vikings started to invade Britain.
    The Vikings came from countries like Denmark and
    Norway and spoke a language that developed
    into Norwegian and Danish
  • 600 BCE

    THE CELTS

    The first languages in the British Isles are the Celtic ones like Welsh and Scottish Gaelic. These people settled the British Isles about
    600 BC. That is more than 2500 years ago!
  • 450 BCE

    the anglo-saxons

    The first people who spoke English
    arrived in England in about the year 450.
    These people were the Anglo-Saxons
    and their language was Old English.
  • 55 BCE

    the romans

    In 55BC, there was an invasion by the Romans, who spoke Latin.
    They gave Latin names to places and some of these names are still used today.