The Ancestry of the English Language

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  • 4000 BCE

    Proto-Indo-European Roots

    The European languages and Sanskrit (from the area of India) are thought to have a similar source dating back to 4000 BC. This common source is referred to as Proto-Indo-European.
  • Period: 4000 BCE to

    The Ancestry of the English Language

    The English language has been a long time coming, but hasn't changed much since the invention of the printing press. Has this invention slowed our language's evolution, or is it changing at the same rate?
  • 3000 BCE

    The Indo-European Family of Languages

    During the millennium following the establishment of the Proto-Indo-European source, many language families formed from this source. The Indo-European Family of Languages included many branches, but we will focus on the Germanic Branch, from which English derives.
  • 200

    The Germanic Branch of Indo-European Languages

    The English language belongs to the Germanic Branch of the Indo-European Languages. Modern English, of course, comes from Great Britain, and in the first through third centuries the British Isles were under Roman rule, then were part of the Gallic Empire after the fall of the Roman Empire. The Romans' culture and use of Greek and Latin influenced English before it was English - we still use some Greek and Latin words today.
  • 450

    English Is a Germanic Language

    Britain was mostly Celtic before Germanic invasion around 450 AD, though they had adopted much of Roman culture and language. The English language has the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes who spoke Germanic dialects and who settled in Britain around this time period to thank for its most clear origin. These peoples were illiterate though, so there is no written record of this earliest form of English.
  • 700

    Old English

    Early English, when Britain was mostly covered with Anglo-Saxon peoples, is better known as Old English, or Anglo-Saxon. During this time period of the language, from about 700-1100 AD, English gained words and was otherwise influenced by Latin and Danish.
  • 1100

    Middle English

    With the Norman Conquest of 1066, Old English became Middle English when French greatly influenced its evolution. Many speakers in Britain after the conquest were bilingual, speaking French and Old English. When England gained more control again over their own land, people, and government over the next couple hundred years, English became the main language again.
  • 1500

    Modern English

    New English, or Modern English, became stabilized shortly after the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenburg in 1450. There have been changes since then in the English language - daily changes - but the changes in spoken English have been more considerable than those in the written English language. The English language spread with colonization and is now the most spoken language in the world besides Mandarin/Chinese.