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In the 5th century, the British isles was invaded by northern germany (angles), Germany (saxons), and jutland/Denmark (Jutes). They litterally, obliterating the language that was spoken before th series of invasions.
During the anglo-saxon period, there were two major influences on the english language; Latin from the Christian missionaries and scholars and norse from the danish Vikings. -
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The danish vikings settled down as farmers in northern britain
When the Danish vikings settled in Britain, the influences of Norse was dramatic an long-lasting. -
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Invaded by the Normans from the northern part of france for hundreds of years.
Why didn't they speak french?
They did! But it was only the Norman/English king and his nobles, and the elite. The common people still spoke their 'good Old english'. But the clergy, bishops and priests spoke Latin. England had become a trilingual nation for a while. -
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Grammatical relationships in a sentence in Old english, were chiefly shown by the use of inflections. But this changed in the middle ages, and by the end of that period the former system had been replaced by the grammar we still see in english today.
The old english alphabet saw only few changes in the middle ages, it wawed goodbye to æ which got replaced by 'a', and soon acquired the shapes that we know today. -
In the beginning of the period nobody knew how to write and print correctly, there were neither dictionaries nor grammar books, but they were working on it.
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The flood of changes in the language in an increasingly changing world naturally caused some concern. Many authors in particular were deeply worried that there works would not be undrstandable by future generations.
Just like many Danes today are discussing whether danish is dying or developing as a result of globalization, that was a heated debate called 'The Inkhorn Controversy'. -
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In 1776 American gained its independence from Britain, and as a new nation they needed a new language. You may not think there is much difference between British english and american english, but to the newly independent americans, hidding themeselves of british influence was seen as one of many vital tools in the building of a new uniform national identity.
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During the modern english period, the grammar standard english has continued to change but at a much slower rate than in the previous centuries.
The major changes in the standard english that have taken place reflect the multiply social, scientific, technological and economic developments that the 19th and 20th centuries saw. -
