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400
Suspected date of Beowulf's writing
Beowulf Old English is an Old English epic poem consisting of 3,182 alliterative lines. It is arguably one of the most important works of Old English literature. The date of composition is a matter of contention among scholars; the only certain dating pertains to the manuscript, which was produced between 975 and 1025.The author was an anonymous Anglo-Saxon poet, referred to by scholars as the "Beowulf poet". -
1066
The Norman Invasion
In 1066 the Normans conquered England and it affected strongly the language. It would have lacked the greatest part of French words that today makes it seem on the side of vocabulary more a Romance than a Germanic language. The Norman conquest changed the whole course of English. -
1400
Chaucer's Canterbury Tales
The Canterbury Tales is a collection of 24 stories that runs to over 17,000 lines written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400. In 1386, Chaucer became Controller of Customs and Justice of Peace and, in 1389, Clerk of the King's work. The tales are presented as part of a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel together from London to Canterbury to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. -
1440
The invention of the Printing Press
Many people may expect printing to immediately begin standardizing the spelling and vocabulary of accepted English (after all, everyone was reading the same, mass-produced material). -
Publication of Shakespeare's First Folio
First Folio. Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies is the 1623 published collection of William Shakespeare's plays. Modern scholars commonly refer to it as the First Folio. It is considered one of the most influential books ever published in the English language. -
The discovery of North America
Some English came to America to have a chance to practice the religion of their choice. Some religious people came to America to bring their Christian faith to the Native Americans. ... Businessmen came to America to buy products such as tobacco and furs from the colonists. -
The American Revolution.
Before the Revolution, people learned grammar through classic British primers that were based in fusty Latin rules that didn’t really fit English. They enshrined Latin-inspired rules that weren’t much in popular use, such as saying “It is I” instead of “It is me” and “I am taller than he” instead of "I am taller than him." They forbid the stranding of prepositions and the use of who and whose for inanimate objects. -
The invention of the Internet
The Impact of the Internet on the English Language. For hundreds of years, technology has been driving the evolution of the English language. ... However, it is the Internet that has had the largest effect on the English language, changing it completely in less than two decades. -
Cellphones
The cell phone gives us many benefits in life such as having the internet right at our fingertips or being able to talk to someone at any minute. Have you ever thought of the negative things that could happen to you from using your cell phone? Studies have shown that cell phones can lead to brain cancer, car accidents, pedestrian accidents, lack of face to face communication skills, use of improper grammar, and cell phones cost money, which everyone is usually in dire need of.
