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450
OLD ENGLISH PERIOD
Old English language, also called Anglo-Saxon, language spoken and written in England before 1100; it is the ancestor of Middle English and Modern English. Scholars place Old English in the Anglo-Frisian group of West Germanic languages. -
450
Start of Old English
Anglo-Saxon settlement (Angles, Frisians, Saxons, Jutes) of Britain begins. -
Period: 450 to 1100
OLD ENGLISH PERIOD
Old English language, also called Anglo-Saxon, language spoken and written in England before 1100; it is the ancestor of Middle English and Modern English. Scholars place Old English in the Anglo-Frisian group of West Germanic languages. -
597
Beginning of Christian Conversion
St. Augustine arrives in Britain (beginning of Christian conversion of the Anglo-Saxons)
The Latin language the missionaries brought was still only used by the educated ruling classes and Church functionaries, and Latin was only a influence on the English language at this time, being largely restricted to the naming of Church dignitaries and ceremonies -
597
Alphabet
The alphabet used to write our Old English texts was adopted from Latin, which was introduced by Christian missionaries. -
600
Anglo- Saxon Language
Anglo-Saxon language covers most of modern-day England -
793
Viking raids of Britain begin
Began to make sporadic raids on the east cost of Britain. They came from Denmark, Norway and Sweden, although it was the Danes who came with the greatest force. Notorious for their ferocity, ruthlessness and callousness, the Vikings pillaged and plundered the towns and monasteries of northern England before turning their attentions further south. -
800
Literature
About 400 Anglo-Saxon texts survive from this era, including many beautiful poems, telling tales of wild battles and heroic journeys. The oldest surviving text of Old English literature is “Cædmon's Hymn”, which was composed between 658 and 680, and the longest was the ongoing “Anglo-Saxon Chronicle”. But by far the best known is the long epic poem “Beowulf”. -
871
Alfred the Great becomes king of Wessex
By the time Alfred the Great came to the throne in 871, most of the great monasteries of Northumbria and Mercia lay in ruins and only Wessex remained as an independent kingdom. Alfred, set about rebuilding and fostering the revival of learning, law, and religion. Crucially, he believed in educating the people in the vernacular English language, not Latin, and he himself made several translations of important works into English. -
878
Danelaw established, dividing Britain into Anglo-Saxon south and Danish north
Viking expansion was finally checked by Alfred the Great and, in 878, a treaty between the Anglo-Saxons and the Vikings established the Danelaw, splitting the country along a line roughly from London to Chester, giving the Norsemen control over the north and east and the Anglo-Saxons the south and west. Although the Danelaw lasted less than a century, its influence can be seen today in the number of place names of Norse origin in northern England -
911
The beginning of Norman French
Charles II of France grants Normandy to the Viking chief Hrolf the Ganger -
1066
The Norman conquest under William the Conqueror
The Norman Conquest of 1066, when William the Conqueror (Duke of Normandy and, later, William I of England) invaded the island of Britain from his home base in northern France, and settled in his new acquisition along with his nobles and court. William crushed the opposition with a brutal hand and deprived the Anglo-Saxon earls of their property, distributing it to Normans who supported him. -
1067
Language of Normandy
The conquering Normans were themselves descended from Vikings who had settled in northern France about 200 years before . However, they had completely abandoned their Old Norse language and wholeheartedly adopted French (which is a so-called Romance language, derived originally from the Latin, not Germanic, branch of Indo-European), to the extent that not a single Norse word survived in Normandy. -
1100
MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD
The Middle English period saw the breakdown of the inflectional system of Old English and the expansion of vocabulary with many borrowings from French and Latin. -
Period: 1100 to 1500
MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD
The Middle English period saw the breakdown of the inflectional system of Old English and the expansion of vocabulary with many borrowings from French and Latin. -
1154
French (Anglo-Norman) Influence
Often, different words with roughly the same meaning survived, and a whole host of new, French-based synonyms entered the English language.
The pronunciation differences between the harsher, more guttural Anglo-Norman and the softer Francien dialect of Paris were also carried over into English pronunciations. -
1171
Henry ll
Henry II declares himself overlord of Ireland, introducing Norman French and English to the country. -
1204
Uncontrolled of the Duchy of Normandy
King John loses control of the Duchy of Normandy and other French lands; England is now the only home of the Norman French/English. -
1215
The Magna Carta ("Great Charter")
King John signs the Magna Carta ("Great Charter"), a critical document in the long historical process leading to the rule of constitutional law in the English-speaking world. -
1258
King Henry III is forced to accept the Provisions of Oxford
King Henry III is forced to accept the Provisions of Oxford, which establish a Privy Council to oversee the administration of the government. These documents, though annulled a few years later, are generally regarded as England's first written constitution. -
1337
The Hundred Year War against France
The Hundred Years War between England and France leads to the loss of almost all of England's French possessions. -
1349
The Black Death
The Black Death of 1349 - 1350 killed about a third of the English population, including a disproportionate number of the Latin-speaking clergy. After the plague, the English-speaking labouring and merchant classes grew in economic and social importance and, within the short period of a decade, the linguistic division between the nobility and the commoners was largely over. -
1362
The Statute of Pleading
The Statute of Pleading, which made English the official language of the courts and Parliament (although, paradoxically, it was written in French), was adopted in 1362, and in that same year, Edward III became the first king to address Parliament in English, a crucial psychological turning point. -
1384
The Bible
John Wycliffe's produced his translation of “The Bible” in vernacular English. This challenge to Latin as the language of God was considered a revolutionary act of daring at the time, and the translation was banned by the Church in no uncertain terms -
1385
Language
English had become the language of instruction in schools. -
1399
King Henry IV
At his coronation, King Henry IV becomes the first English monarch to deliver a speech in English. -
1450
The Great Vowel Shift
The Great Vowel Shift begins, marking the loss of the so-called "pure" vowel sounds (which are still found in many continental languages) and the loss of the phonetic pairings of most long and short vowel sounds. -
1500
Start of English Renaissance
The English Renaissance was a cultural and artistic movement in England.
The beginning of the English Renaissance is often taken, as a convenience, to be 1485, when the Battle of Bosworth Field ended the Wars of the Roses and inaugurated the Tudor Dynasty. Renaissance style and ideas, however, were slow to penetrate England, and the Elizabethan era in the second half of the 16th century is usually regarded as the height of the English Renaissance. -
1500
English Renaissance
The English Renaissance roughly covers the 16th and early 17th Century (the European Renaissance had begun in Italy as early as the 14th Century) and is often referred to as the “Elizabethan Era” or the “Age of Shakespeare” after the most important monarch and most famous writer of the period. The additions to English vocabulary during this period were deliberate borrowings and not the result of any invasion or influx of new nationalities or any top-down decrees. -
1500
EARLY MODERN ENGLISH PERIOD
During the period of Modern English, British exploration, colonization, and overseas trade hastened the acquisition of loanwords from countless other languages and fostered the development of new varieties of English (World English), each with its own nuances of vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation. Since the middle of the 20th century, the expansion of North American business and media around the world has led to the emergence of Global English as a lingua franca. -
Period: 1500 to
ERALY MODERN ENGLISH
During the period of Modern English, British exploration, colonization, and overseas trade hastened the acquisition of loanwords from countless other languages and fostered the development of new varieties of English (World English), each with its own nuances of vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation. Since the middle of the 20th century, the expansion of North American business and media around the world has led to the emergence of Global English as a lingua franca. -
1526
The Bible
William Tyndale prints his English translation of the New Testament of “The Bible” -
1539
“The Great Bible” published
Ironically, a scant few years after Tyndale’s execution, Henry VIII’s split with Roman Catholicism completely changed official attitudes to an English “Bible”, and by 1539 the idea was being wholeheartedly encouraged, and several new English language Bibles were published (including the “Coverdale Bible”, the “Matthew Bible”, the “Great Bible”, the “Geneva Bible”, the “Bishops Bible”, etc). -
Elizabeth I begins her 45-year reign as queen of England.
Elizabeth I begins her 45-year reign as queen of England. The British defeat the Spanish Armada, boosting national pride and enhancing the legend of Queen Elizabeth. -
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare writes his Sonnets and the majority of his plays. -
The Authorized, or King James Version, of “The Bible” is published
The “King James Bible” was compiled by a committee of 54 scholars and clerics, and published in 1611, in an attempt to standardize the plethora of new Bibles that had sprung up over the preceding 70 years. It appears to be deliberately conservative, even backward-looking, both in its vocabulary and its grammar, and presents many forms which had already largely fallen out of use, or were at least in the process of dying out -
Civil War breaks out in England
Civil War breaks out in England after King Charles I attempts to arrest his parliamentary critics. The war leads to the execution of Charles I, the dissolution of parliament, and the replacement of the English monarchy with a Protectorate (1653–59) under Oliver Cromwell's rule. -
The Royal Society of London
The Royal Society of London appoints a committee to consider ways of "improving" English as a language of science. -
Essay Upon Projects
In his Essay Upon Projects, Daniel Defoe calls for the creation of an Academy of 36 "gentlemen" to dictate English usage. -
The Daily Courant
The Daily Courant, the first regular daily newspaper in English, is published in London. -
The Act of Union unites the Parliaments
The Act of Union unites the Parliaments of England and Scotland, creating the United Kingdom of Great Britain. -
Creation of an English Academy to regulate English
Anglo-Irish satirist and cleric Jonathan Swift proposes the creation of an English Academy to regulate English usage and "ascertain" the language -
Universal Etymological Dictionary of the English Language
Nathaniel Bailey publishes his Universal Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, a pioneer study in English lexicography: the first to feature current usage, etymology, syllabification, clarifying quotations, illustrations, and indications of pronunciation. -
Dictionary of the English Language.
Samuel Johnson publishes his two-volume Dictionary of the English Language. -
English grammarians
This period marks the rise of the English grammarians (Joseph Priestly, Robert Lowth, James Buchanan, John Ash, Thomas Sheridan, George Campbell, William Ward, and Lindley Murray), whose rule books, primarily based on prescriptive notions of grammar, become increasingly popular. -
Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence is signed, and the American War of Independence begins, leading to the creation of the United States of America, the first country outside the British Isles with English as its principal language. -
First English settlement
First English settlement at the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa -
LATE MODERN ENGLISH PERIOD
Grimm's Law (discovered by Friedrich von Schlegel and Rasmus Rask, later elaborated by Jacob Grimm) identifies relationships between certain consonants in Germanic languages (including English) and their originals in Indo-European. The formulation of Grimm's Law marks a major advance in the development of linguistics as a scholarly field of study. -
Period: to
LATE MODERN ENGLISH
Grimm's Law (discovered by Friedrich von Schlegel and Rasmus Rask, later elaborated by Jacob Grimm) identifies relationships between certain consonants in Germanic languages (including English) and their originals in Indo-European. The formulation of Grimm's Law marks a major advance in the development of linguistics as a scholarly field of study. -
A New and Improved Grammar
William Hazlitt publishes A New and Improved Grammar of the English Language. -
The first telegraph
The telegraph is invented by Samuel Morse, inaugurating the development of rapid communication, a major influence on the growth and spread of English. -
The Oxford English Dictionary
The Oxford English Dictionary is published. -
World War II begins.
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World War II ends.
World War II ends. The Allied victory contributes to the growth of English as a lingua franca. -
Canada officially becomes bilingual
Canada officially becomes bilingual (French and English). The first major English dictionary to use corpus linguistics—The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language—is published. -
David Crystal publishes The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language.
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The Oxford English Dictionary Online (OED Online) is made available to subscribers.
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The two-volume Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary is published by Oxford University Press.
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The fifth volume (SI-Z) of the Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE ) is published by Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
