-
-
The english channel is formed, cutting off the British Isles from mainland Europe.
-
the Indo-Europeans began to fan out across Europe and Asia, in search of new pastures and hunting grounds, and their languages developed - and diverged - in isolation. By around 1000 BC, the original Indo-European language had split into a dozen or more major language groups or families, the main groups being: Hellenic
Italic
Indo-Iranian
Celtic
Germanic
Armenian
Balto-Slavic -
We do not know exactly what the original Indo-European language was like, as no writings exist from that time (the very earliest examples of writing can be traced to Sumeria in around 3000 BC), so our knowledge of it is necessarily based on conjecture, hypothesis and reconstruction. Using the “comparative method”, though, modern linguists have been able to partially reconstruct the original language from common elements in its daughter languages.
-
Words of celtic origen in modern english:
bog, clan, crag, glen, pet, slew, slogan, trousers -
First Roman invasion of Britain. Rome ends up occupying Britain for about 500 years
-
Germanic Anglo - Saxon tribes beging to inhabit British Isles, and the English language is born.
Words of Anglo - Saxon origin in modern English: arm, dark, forgive, house, laugh, man, pillow, read, strong, town, woman, year.
Thus, we can say that English belongs to the West Germanic branch of the Indo-European family of languages. -
Earliest Old English inscriptions
-
The Anglo-Saxons start converting to Cristianity, and English starts adopting new words from Latin, such as: angel, candle, hymn, lobster, martyr, plant, noon, school, sock
-
Britains first undergoes raids from the Vikings, giving English words from Old Norse: bull, club, law, ransack, reindeer, slaughter, wing
-
The Norman Conquest.
William the conqueror invades Britain, and Britain's nobility speaks French for over 300 years -
-
The Great Vowel Shift. The pronunciation of long vowel sound changes in English.
-
-
William Shakespeare begins writing plays. Shakespearecoins almost 2000 new words in English, like, anchovy, domineering, gloomy,investment, luggage, rant, stealthy.
-
Jamestown becomes the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. Britain would go on to create settlements the world over, and each area would make its own contributions to English.
A few examples are: Avatar(from India), Kangaroo (from Australia), Zombie( from West Africa) -
-
Samuel Johnson published his Dictionary of the English Language which becomes the first widely used book of its kind Dr. Johnson is responsible for may spellings in modern English
-
1928 This year, whatever else it may be, is the Year of the Dictionary.
So wrote Charles Onions in the Times of 19 April 1928, in an article celebrating the completion of the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary.The Oxford English Dictionary was originally published in fascicles between 1884 and 1928. A one-volume supplement was published in 1933, and four further supplementary volumes were published between 1972 and 1986. -
Second edition of the “Oxford English Dictionary” is published.
The Second Edition of the Dictionary, published in 1989, was an amalgamation of the text of the First Edition with that of the Supplement produced in 1972–86, combined with approximately five thousand entries for new words and meanings. -
The Oxford English Dictionary honors and emoji as its Word of the Year.
-
Over the course of time, English has taken vocabulary from over 350 other languages. There are currently about 1.5 billion people speaking English in the world.