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1066
Transition from Old English to Middle English
William the Conqueror invaded the island of Britain from his home base in northern France. -
1154
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
A book that had recorded the history of the English people. Even after the Norman Conquest, it was English, the language that emerged as the language of England. -
1167
Founded universities
In 1167 and 1209 the universities of Oxford and Cambridge were founded therefore, general literacy continued to increase. -
1204
Difference between dialects
The differences between Anglo-Norman and Francien dialects were remarked after King John and England lost the French part of Normandy to the King of France -
1337
The Hundred Year War
The war agains France lasted from 1337 - 1453, the status of English rose as a consequence. -
1385
Official language
The Statute of Pleading made English the official language of the courts and Parliament in 1362. English became the language of instruction in schools. -
1399
Anglo-Norman the verbal language of the court
The Anglo-Norman French became the language of the kings and nobility of England when Henry IV, became the first monarch since before the Conquest to have English as his mother tongue. -
1399
Middle English
A big amount of the population continued to speak English which was considered by the Normans a low-class, vulgar tongue. Middle English is the result of a mixture of Old English and Anglo-Norman. -
1400
Sufixes
The Normans tended to use the suffixes “-arie” and “-orie” instead of the French “-aire” and “-oire”, so that English has words like victory (as compared to victoire) and salary (as compared to salaire), etc. -
1500
English becomes the third language in its own country
English had no official status or regulation but it became the third language in its own country. It was a spoken nor written language. -
1500
The “Ormulum"
text written by a monk called Orm. He used double consonants to indicate a short preceding vowel and used three separate symbols to differentiate the different sounds of the Old English letter yogh; and he used the more modern “wh” for the old-style “hw” and “sh” for “sc”.
