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Period: 400 to Jan 24, 1066
Old English
The beginning of the English language -
450
5th century invasion
The exact year is unknown
The British Isles were invaded by Germany and Denmark. The former languages were nearly destoyed. The Old English began. The Danish vikings added some Norse words, while the Christian missionaries added Latin words. -
Jan 24, 1066
Invaded by the Normans
The Britsh Isles were invaded by the Normans and the Frenchmen. The Normans had control of the government, the church and more. This meant that the English language got a lot of loanwords from the Normans. -
Period: Jan 24, 1066 to Jan 24, 1470
Middle English
The process from Old English to Middle English was long.
In the start of this time 90% of the words were from the Old English and at the end it fell to 75%. -
Jan 24, 1384
Latin words introduced
The Bible now got translated and many Latin words entered the English vocabulary. Latin words were in generel introduced in the vocabulary in the Middle English periode. -
Jan 24, 1476
The Printing Press
Before the printing press was made there was not a clear agreement of the punctuation, vocabulary etc. But now you could mass-produce books and most people had access to these books. But not all people understood the language some of the books contained. It was a problem and the Britsh people had to find a uniform way to write and so on... -
Period: Jan 24, 1476 to
Early Modern English
In this Timespand the society changed and got more modern. A lot of new words from all over the world were intergated because of the scientific evolvement. The new concepts were printed and read in the most of the world due to the printing press -
King James and Shakespeare
In this year the King James Bible was published and about the same time, Shakespeare made a lot of poetry and things like that. Shakespeare and King James had a big influence on the English language: They made a lot of idioms and phrases, which are still used today. -
Period: to
Modern English
The English we know and use today
