The English Language

  • 450

    The starting point

    Around 450 AD speaker of the ancestors of the English language, the Anglo-Saxon, settled on the island of Brittan.
  • 500

    Beginning of the Heptarchy

    Anglo-Saxon England split into seven kingdoms.
  • 580

    Suspected date of Beowulf's writing

  • Jan 1, 600

    Angelo-Saxton language covers most of modern day English

  • 800

    The Epic Poem of Beowful

    Beowful is one of the longest major poems in Old English spoken in Anglo-Saxon.
  • 1066

    The Norman Invasion

  • 1100

    Early Modern English

  • 1386

    Chaucer becomes ruler

    He became controller of customs and justice peace.
  • 1387

    Chaucer's Canterbury Tales

    Collection of 24 stories that runs over 17,000 lines written in Middle English between 1387 and 1400.
  • 1440

    The invention of the Printing Press

  • 1497

    The discovery of North America

  • 1500

    Early Modern English

  • Modern English

  • News paper

  • The American Revolution

  • Publication of Shakespeare's First Folio

  • Second edition