HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

THE INFLUENCE OF THE PRINTING PRESS WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

1650 BCE

English began to grow more quickly when William Caxton returned to Britain. He had been in Holland.He had lived
in otherareas of Europe. He returned to Britain with the first printing press which made it almost anyone to buy a book. In the last part of the sixteenth century a writing writer, William Shakespeare, produced his work in English.

THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH

1426 BCE

In the year 597, the Roman Catholic Church began its attempt to make Christianity The language of the Catholic Church was Latin. It was still used by some people. Educated people from different countries could communicate using Latin. Latin had a great effect on the English language, including "disk," "dish," and "desk." Some English names of plants such as ginger and trees such as cedar come from Latin. So do some medical words such as cancer.

THE NORMAN CONQUEST

957 BCE

The next invasion of Britain took place more than 900 years ago, in 1066. The Normans were a French-speaking people from Normandy in the north of France. It was the most important language in the world at that time. Old English took many words from the Norman French. English was spoken by 800 years ago. The ruling Normans no longer spoke true French. Their language had become a mix of French and Old English. Many written works from this period have survived, for example, The Canterbury Tales.

THE VIKINGS IN BITRAIN

923 BCE

Fierce people called Vikings raised the coast areas of Britain. The Vikings came from Denmark, Norway. They were looking to capture trade goods and slaves. The Vikings became so powerful they built temporary bases. Many English words used today come from these Ancient Vikings, like “sky,” “leg,” “skull,” “egg,” “crawl,” “lift” and “take”.

THE ANGLO-SAXON INVASION

523 BCE

There were a lot of invasions in Britain. Later two more groups crossed to Britain. They were the Saxons and the Jutes. These groups found a people called the Celts..
Through the years, the Saxons, Angles and Jutes mixed their different languages. The result is what is called Anglo-Saxon or Old English. Old English is extremely difficult to understand. Several written works have survived from the Old English period. the most famous is called “Beowulf”