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Celts inhabited much of Europe and started to colonize the British Isles. This group of people was tied by a similar language, religion, and cultural expression. Very few people could read or write in Britain. Instead, information was usually passed from person to person by word of mouth.
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Before the Anglo-Saxon invasion, the language or languages spoken by the native inhabitants of the British Isles belong the Celtic family introduced by the people who had come to the islands around the middle of the first millennium BC.
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Celts arrived to what is now, known as England, Celts inhabit much of Europe, and beginning to colonize the British Isles.
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Romans arrived in England first Roman raids on Britain under Julius Caesar.
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Roman occupation of Britain under Emperor Claudius (beginning of Roman rule of Britain)
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Roman Army leaves Britain to help defend their Empire in Europe. PS: When Rome left its province of Britannia, after nearly four centuries of imperial rule, the native population had little protection against intruders. Between the time of Rome's conquest (in 43 A.D.), and its departure (in 410), the empire's forces were responsible for maintaining law and order. Rome's legions left. Who would rule? Whose troops would defend the people and their land?
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Scots and Pits attack Britain. Venerable Bede began the letter asking for help, written to the Roman consul by some of the Celtic people who had survived the ferocious invasion. Rome denied help.
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King Vortigern call over for help to the Saxon nation, the nation of the angles or Saxons arrived in Britain, with three long ships.
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Hengist and Horsa fought against King Vortigern at a place which is called Agaelesprep (Aylesford), and his brother Horsa was slain. And after that Hengist succeeded to the kingdom and Aesc, his son.
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Hengist and Aesc, fought against the Britons at a place known as Crecganford (Crayford, Kent) four thousand Britons were slew the Britons fled to London in great terror.
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Hengist and Aesc fought against the Welsh near Wippedesfleot and there slew twelve Welsh nobles; and one of their thanes, whose name was Wipped, was slain there.
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Hengist and Horsa capture and kill Welsh, and the Welsh abandon Britain.
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The Saxon establish in areas of southern and south-eastern Britain.
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In this year Aelle fought against the Welsh near the bank of the stream Mearcraedesburna.
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In this year Aesc succeeded to the kingdom and was king of the people of Kent twenty-four years.
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Jutish Brothers Hengist and Horsa establish in the areas known as Kent.
The Angles establish in areas known as Northumbria -
By the end of the 5th Century, the foundation was established for the Emergence of the English Language.
The Northumbrian monk, Bede or Beade, known in history as the Venerable Bede. Born at Monkton on Tyne was taken to the new monastery at Wearmouth, by then moving in 682 to the sister monastery at Jarrow, where he worked as a writer and teacher. Venerable Bede wrote in Latin “Historia Ecclesiastical Gentis Anglorum” translated to English as “Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation”. -
Viking raids of Britain begin
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Old English epic poem “Beowulf” composed
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The Danes launch full-scale invasion and occupy Northumbria
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Alfred the Great becomes king of Wessex, encourages English prose and translation of Latin works
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“The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle” is begun
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Danelaw established, dividing Britain into Anglo-Saxon south and Danish north
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Charles II of France grants Normandy to the Viking chief Hrolf the Ganger (the beginning of Norman French)
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The Norman conquest under William the Conqueror
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The oldest surviving manuscripts in Middle English date from this period
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English is used in the English Parliament for the first time
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The Statute of Pleading replaces French with English as the language of law (although records continue to be kept in Latin)
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William Langland writes “Piers Plowman” William Langland is the presumed author of a work of Middle English alliterative verse generally known as Piers Plowman, an allegory with a complex variety of religious themes. The poem translated the language and concepts of the cloister into symbols and images that could be understood by a layman.
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John Wycliffe publishes his English translation of “The Bible”
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English replaces Latin as main language in schools (except Universities of Oxford and Cambridge)
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Chaucer begins “The Canterbury Tales”
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Henry IV becomes first English-speaking monarch since before the Conquest
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The Great Vowel Shift begins
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Start of English Renaissance
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William Tyndale prints his English translation of the New Testament of “The Bible”
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“The Great Bible” published
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First version of “The Book of Common Prayer” published
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William Shakespeare writes his first plays
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Robert Cawdrey publishes the first English dictionary, “A Table Alphabeticall”
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The Authorized, or King James Version, of “The Bible” is published
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Death of William Shakespeare
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Publication of the first English-language newspaper, the “Courante” or “Weekly News”
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First Folio of Shakespeare’s works is published
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Publication of the first daily English-language newspaper, “The Daily Courant”, in London
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Samuel Johnson publishes his “Dictionary of the English Language”
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Literary Voice - 1770-1850
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Literary Voice – 1771-1832
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Last native speaker of the Celtic Cornish language dies
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First publication of “The Times” newspaper in London
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Noah Webster publishes “The American Spelling Book”
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Literary Voice – 1811-1863
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Noah Webster publishes his “The American Dictionary of the English Language”
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Literary Voice – 1840-1928
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British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) founded
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First edition of the “Oxford English Dictionary” is published
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It traces the usage of words through 2.4 million quotations from a wide range of international English language sources. The quotations are drawn from a huge variety of sources worldwide - literary, scholarly, technical, and popular - and represent authors as disparate as Geoffrey Chaucer and Erica Jong, William Shakespeare, Charles Darwin, and Isabella Beeton.
