English

By james.bartlett
  • 750 BCE

    Celtic Speaking Tribes

    • non-unified people
    • due to travel tendencies, many different dialects were formed, making it hard to communicate.
    • formed: Manx
    Gaelic
    Bretton
    Cornish
    • few Celtic words remain in Modern English
    • Modern Welsh is a descendant of the Celtic tongue
  • 43

    Romans

    • Only around 200 modern English words come from this time
    • Roman conquest of Britain, they did not seek to impose their language
    • Britons grew up in Latin speaking households - and somewhat bilingual
    • Roman occupation didn’t impact much
  • 597

    Christianity

    • A monk by the name of Augustine gave birth to Christianity in England
    • Christian communities formed, introducing and spreading the Roman alphabet and letters’
  • 1066

    Anglo Saxons

    • Commonly known as Anglo-Saxons
    • Three groups of people could all communicate despite differences in language - unknown how
    • Collectively named “Germanic”
    • Slowly evolved to become “Old English”
  • 1066

    Vikings

    • Invaders from sweden, norway and denmark spread their language “Old Norse” which is also Germanic
    • Settled in North and East England, later known as “Danelaw”
    • Treaty of Wedmore (878) states they were forbidden to travel into the South and West England unless trading
    • Due to increasing relationships between the English and Vikings, Old English absorbs Norse words into everyday use
  • 1400

    Geoffrey Chaucer

    • Norman political power diminished in England and France, making English the dominant language
    • different dialects still remain
    • London dialect is a combination of Kentish and East Midland dialects

  • King James' Bible

    • The Catholic Church resisted English translations of the Bible, due to the threat to its power and authority
    • John Wycliffe and William Tyndale translated the Bible into English, distributing copies against the Church and Government, executed when they were found guilty.
    • It was politically expedient to create an official English version after the establishment of the Church of England by Henry VIII

  • William Shakespeare

    • Most successful and influential writer in an era
    • Major works such as 37 plays, 154 sonnets and 5 other major epic poems
    • Writing drew on a range of resources such as Anglo-Saxon English, Norman, French and Latin.
    • Experimented with language, discovering new ways of saying old things
    • Added approximately 2000 terms to the English lexicon

  • Vowel Shift

    • Pronunciation of long vowels changed gradually but significantly changed over this period
    • Short vowels and consonants were mostly unaffected
    • These changes form the basis of Modern English

  • Samuel Johnsons' Dictionary

    • Concerns about ‘correct English’ emerge, one of the factors being increased use of the printing press in order to publish books and pamphlets
    • Publishes the first English dictionary of real substance and authority

  • Current Day