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Celts were the first inhabitants of Britain from 55 BC-400 AD (Handke, 2014). These Celts interacted with Romans and the Germanic groups that invaded Britain (Gelderen, 2014). The Celts had a small influence on the Germanic groups on the continent (Gelderen, 2014).
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In 55 AD the Romans conquered most of Britain (Handke, 2014). The Romans occupied Britain until 410. This left Britain vulnerable to invasion.
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In 410 AD the Romans withdraw from Britain, leaving it vulnerable. After the Romans left, The Picts invaded northern Britain.
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In 449, the Germanic tribes of Jutes, Saxons, and Angles invaded Britain (Gelderen, 2014). Though most Celts moved to the mountainous regions of Cambria and Wales, some Celts did interact with the Germanic people (Gelderen, 2014). This led to some Celtic words being adopted by the Germanic people. Old English looked and sounded very different than modern-day English. There were no spaces between words in sentences and word order was mostly free (Handke, 2014; Gelderen, 2014).
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The Old English period is considered to be 600-1100 AD. The Germanic tribes actually invaded Britain in 449. The development of Old English was a process. It evolved throughout the Old English time period. Some Celtic words were adopted during this time (Gelderen, 2014). Most Celts moved to the mountainous regions of Cambria and Wales (Handke, 2014), but some Celts interacted with the Germanic people (Gelderen, 2014). Some people refer to Old English as Anglo-Saxon English.
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The Battle of Hastings in 1066 greatly impacted the transition to Middle English (Handke, 2014). William. the Duke of Normandy won the Battle of Hastings against King Harold II and the English. Because of this, he became known as William the Conqueror. This caused a big change socially, politically, and linguistically. William replaced the English aristocracy almost completely with a Norman (French) aristocracy. English became the language of the common people.
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William made Latin and French the language of the aristocracy (Handke, 2014). Nothing was printed in English. All literature, laws, and official documents were written in French or Latin (Handke, 2014).
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The Middle English period is considered to be from 1100-1500. The transition between Old and Middle English is the most recognizable change (Gelderen, 2014). There are clear differences in dialects in Middle English, but not in Old English. Middle English is Germanic at its core with a significant Roman vocabulary. One big difference between Old and Middle English is the addition of more grammatical words, such as prepositions, auxiliaries, and articles (Gelderen, 2014).
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In 1204, King John "Lackland" lost his land and possessions in France. This began the downfall of French as the official language of the aristocracy. By the 13th and 14th centuries, children of the nobility no longer learned French as a native language. English, once again became the official language of the aristocracy. Two major events caused the downfall of French as the official language (Handke, 2014).
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The Renaissance ushered in a return to classical education. It was a period of scientific enlightenment. This led to more Latin and French vocabulary being added to the English language.
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The Hundred Year War began in 1337 and ended in 1453 (Handke, 2014). All continental holdings were lost, so there was no reason to learn French. French influenced the English language because of the time that it was the official language. The transition from Old English and Middle English is the most extreme change. There were internal and external changes (Gelderen, 2014). Two other events impacted the final change from French back to English (Handke, 2014).
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The Black Death killed about one-third of the English between 1348 and 1351. This caused a large labor shortage and an increase in the status of English.
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The end of the Middle English period began partly because of the introduction of the printing press (Handke, 2014). This led to the English language being standardized.
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England began colonizing lands across the globe after the discovery of America in 1492. This grew English from a regional language to a global one (Handke, 2014).
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The transition to Early Modern English parallels King Henry VIII's inauguration (Handke, 2014). William Shakespeare was very influential in the transition to the Early Modern English era. In fact, some people call it Shakespearean English. Early Modern used grammatical words instead of inflection to express syntactic relations within sentences (Britannca, nd). Word order was fixed to a verb-object-verb inflection.
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By 1700 the English language was pretty much the same as modern-day English.
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Gelderen, E. Van (2014). A history of the English Language. (Revised edition). John Benjamin Publishing Company Handke, J. (2014). History of English: An overview. The VLC Video Library [Video file]. Britannica, http://www.britannica.com