The History of the English Language

By tated
  • History of English
    400

    History of English

  • 450

    Old English

    This includes the Coming of Christianity and literacy, The Anglo-Saxon or Old English Language, The Vikings and English after Vikings
  • 450

    Anglo-Saxton Settlement

  • 597

    St. Augustine arrives in Britain

  • 700

    The writing of Beowulf

  • 1066

    The Norman Invasion

  • 1086

    "Doomsday Book" compiled

  • 1100

    Middle English

    including Norman Conquest, French (Anglo-Norman) Influence, Middle English After the Normans, Resurgence of English, Chaucer and the Birth of English Literature
  • 1150

    The oldest surviving manuscripts in Middle English date from this period

  • 1385

    English replaces Latin as main language in schools (except Universities of Oxford and Cambridge)

  • 1392

    Chaucer's Canterbury Tales

  • 1440

    The invention of the Printing Press

  • 1450

    The Great Vowel Shift begins

  • Early Modern English
    1485

    Early Modern English

    Includes Great Vowel Shift, The English Renaissance, Printing Press and Standardization, The Bible, Dictionaries and Grammars, Golden Age of English Literature, William Shakespeare, International Trade
  • 1492

    The discovery of North America

  • 1550

    Modern English

    The Industrial and Scientific Revolution,Colonialism and the British Empire, The New World, American Dialect, Black English, Britain’s Other Colonies, Language Reform, Later Developments, 20th Century
  • William Shakespeare writes his first plays

    William Shakespeare writes his first plays

  • Publication of Shakespeare's First Folio

  • The American Revolution

  • Noah Webster publishes “The American Spelling Book”

  • First edition of the “Oxford English Dictionary” is published

  • History of English