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Jan 1, 731
Bede
He was known as the Venerable. He wrote Ecclesiastical History of the English People to help teach the people about their history. -
Jan 1, 1042
Edward the Confessor
He grew up in France. When he was restored to the English throne he wanted to incorporate many of the French ways and give high positions to his Norman friends. -
Dec 25, 1066
William the Conqueror
He became king of England because William had defeated the English, he got rid of the old English nobility and introduced a nobility that was French. Normans also supplanted the English church positions. The French language because the language of the upper class and greatly influenced the development of the English language. -
Jan 1, 1204
Middle English Begins
The Hundred Years' War - A war between England and France. It had a significant impact on the development of English because France
became the enemy. The English people didn't want to use French words or terms anymore so the upper class began to want to learn and speak English. -
Jan 1, 1348
The Black Death
The disease that killed a vast majority of the people. It had a significant impact on the development of English because
since so many people died there was a shortage of laborers. Because laborers were valued more, their language became more important too.
The lower class moved up to the middle class and brought their language to a higher status too -
Jan 1, 1362
Statute of Pleading
This law is the offical recognition of the English language in England.
Parliament was opened with its first speech made in English in this year. -
Jan 1, 1500
Modern English
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Jan 1, 1564
Shakespeare
Shakespearean plays had a huge affect on Today's modern language -
Cawdry
He wrote the first dictionary of hard words -
Grim's Law
Jacob Grim found that Germanic consonants are tied to Sanskirt, Greek and Latin. His law states that there was a sound change sometime after the Germanic language broke from the neighboring dialects of the parent tongue. -
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED)
It was orginally known as A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (NED). It took forty-four year to compile the first edition and it is updated about every forty years. -
Old English
In the year 597, St. Augustine wanted to convert Britain to Christianity. This influenced the English language because
it introduced many new religious words and concepts to the English people. These words were based on examples
from Latin and Greek. These two classic languages brought a large influence to the English tongue