The English Language

  • Jan 24, 730

    Celts and Romans

    There were about 500.000 individuals in Great Britain with their own cultures, traditions and language/dialect.
    Many languages were not written down, just spoked. Therefore the languages died.
  • Jan 24, 900

    Vikings

    Many people from the nordic countries such as Norway, Denmark and Sweden, invaded countries as England. You can still see last names as Andersson and Johnson. The -son ending is from the danish word søn.
    If the father's name was Anders, the son's last name would be Andersson, or if it is a girl, Andersdaughter. The -daughter name is not used that much any more.
  • Jan 24, 1066

    Old English

    Before 1066, waves of newcomers brought their own language to the country, whis in this case is England.
    The English language started to develop, by taking so many new words from other countries.
  • Jan 24, 1268

    Middle English

    England actually once were a trilingual country. They spoke English, Latin and French.
    French came from the Normans, who were invaders from the notheren part of France. The priests and Bishops spoke Latin and the rest spoke a kind of English, that we don't really know that much about.
  • Jan 24, 1400

    Anglo-Saxon invasion

    The British Isles were invaded by the Angles, Saxons and Jutes. Angles are from the notheren Germany, Saxons are from Germany too and Jutes are from Jutland, Denmark.
    As we know, this is the first sign of the English language.
  • Early modern English

    The language in the 17th century are almost like the English anguage today. They were not modern at all, the hadn't dictionaries so no one could see how words were spelled right.
  • American English

    In 1776 America gained its independence from Britain. Therefore they needed a new language because of the new nation. They did not get a new language, just some new words.
  • Modern English

    In this period, the grammar has continued to change, but not that fast as in other countries. Many more words were added to the dictionary, because of new experiences. People started to explore more and more such as technology.