History of English

Old English - 5th century

• celts in britain ruled by romans, protected from Saxon tribes of Northern Europe

• Romans conquered, Germanic tribes take over, anglo-Saxon became common language

  • what we now call old English

• viking invasions in 700s, Saxons and Dane’s across half of England

  • old norse mixed with old english

    • freckle, leg, skin still used in our language

• phonetic language with very little consistency in written language

Middle English - 11th century

• Norman’s invaded and French was language of aristocracy for three years whilst the peasants speak old English

• french clergymen introduced Latin words to the language

• english speakers used these to sound more intelligent

• parliament, government, marriage still used today from french language

• no standardised spelling system, great vowel shift - vowels became shorter, big expansion of vocabulary

Early Modern English - 15th century

• printing press in 1476

  • mass productions led to a form of standardisation

• first attempt at a single-language English dictionary in 1604

• Shakespeare, James I bible and scientists communicated in English which led to increased popularity again

• word order was different, interrogratives didn’t always include auxilliary verbs

Modern English - 18th century

• British empire collapsed and so there was an increase in travel

• industrial revolution

• school became compulsary for all until the age of 12

• contractions commonly used

• grammarians standardised the language

  • samuel Johnson - grammar book

  • robert Lowth - dictionary

Present day English - 20th century

• influence of media, technology and travel has helped to establish English as a global language