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The foundation of the English language was first built when the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes came to England. The Old Saxon language was the most spoken in England until the Vikings from mainly Norway and Denmark invaded Britain.
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How the English language has developed so much over the years.
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Christianity introduced among Anglo-Saxons by St. Augustine, missionary from Rome. Irish missionaries spread Celtic form of Christianity to mainland Britain.
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The Normans in the 11th century, who spoke Old Norman and ultimately developed an English variety of this called Anglo-Norman.
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The Old English period formally ended sometime after the Norman conquest (starting in 1066 AD), when the language was influenced to an even greater extent by the Norman-speaking Normans. Old English was spoken though till sometime in the 12th or 13th century.
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The Middle English period begans.
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First royal proclamation issued in english and in 1205 first book in english that appears since the conquest.
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English becomes offical language of the law courts.
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A proposal for an Academy of the English Language was first brought forth by Jonathan Swift in 1712, but the Parliament voted against it.
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Sir william discovered that Sanskrit contained many cognates to Greek and Latin. He conjectured a Proto-Indo-European language had existed many years before.
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Although the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand have English as an official language, the United States does not have an official language. This is how it's possible to become a US citizen without speaking English.
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Old English language was influenced by speakers of the Scandinavian branch of the Germanic language family, who conquered and colonized parts of Britain in the 8th and 9th centuries.
