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410
ROMANS LEAVE BRITAIN
The English language begins with the phrase "Up Yours Caesar!" as the Romans leave Britain. -
450
ANGLO-SAXON
Lot of Germanic tribes start flooding in, tribes such as the Anglos and the Saxons.
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were named in honour of Anglo-Saxon gods. -
597
CHRISTIANITY
Christian missionaries stole in bringing with them more Latin.
Take on new words like ‘martyr’, ‘bishop’ and ‘font’. -
800
VIKINGS
Came the Vikings, with their action-man words like ‘drag’, ‘ransack’, ‘thrust’ and ‘die’, ‘give’ and ‘take’ as well as the phrase ‘watch out for that man with the enormous axe.’ -
1066
THE NORMAN CONQUEST
William the Conqueror invades Britain, bringing new concepts from across the channel like the French language, the Doomsday book and Galois’s. -
1125
FRENCH, LATIN AND ENGLISH
French was de rigeur for all official business, with words like ‘judge’, ‘jury’, ‘evidence’ and ‘justice’.
Latin was still used ad nauseam in Church, and the common man spoke English. -
1300
ENGLISH SPEAKING-FARMERS
Words like ‘cow’, ‘sheep’ and ‘swine’ come from the English-speaking farmer.
‘Beef’, ‘mutton’ and ‘pork’ - come from the French-speaking toffs. -
1337
THE HUNDRED YEARS WAR
The English nation took their new warlike lingo of ‘armies’, ‘navies’ and ‘soldiers’ and began the Hundred Years War against France. -
1564
SHAKESPEARE
About 2000 new words and phrases were invented by Shakespeare He gave us handy words like ‘eyeball’, ‘puppy-dog’ and ‘anchovy’ - and more show-offy words like ‘dauntless’, ‘besmirch’ and ‘lacklustre’. -
ENGLISH AND EMPIRE
The British Empire, expanse around the globe, leaving new varieties of English to develop all over.
They went to the Caribbean looking for gold discovering the ‘barbeque’, the ‘canoe’. They also brought back the word ‘cannibal’.
In India words like ´Yoga´, ‘cummerbund’,‘crimson’ and ‘bungalow’
In Africa they picked up words like ‘voodoo’ and ‘zombie’, ‘bongo’ and ‘banjo’.
From Australia, English took the words ‘nugget’, ‘boomerang’ and ‘walkabout’ -
THE KING JAMES BIBLE
In 1604, King James I of England authorized that a new translation of the Bible into English be started. It was finished in 1611. The King James Version, quickly became the standard for English-speaking Protestants.
The King James Bible begat a whole glossary of metaphor and morality that still shapes the way English is spoken today, like ‘a leopard can’t change its spots’, ‘a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush’, ‘a wolf in sheep’s clothing’ ‘a fly in your ointment’. -
THE ENGLISH OF SCIENCE
Science was discovering things faster than they could name them. Words like ‘acid’, ‘gravity’, ‘electricity and ‘pendulum’ had to be invented.
The scientists suddenly became aware of the human body – coining new words like ‘cardiac’ and ‘tonsil’, ‘ovary’, and ‘sternum’ and the invention of ‘penis’, ‘vagina’ made sex education classes a bit easier to follow. -
THE AGE OF THE DICTIONARY
With English expanding in all directions, along came a new breed of men called lexicographers, Doctor Johnson was one of the greatest who write the ‘Dictionary of the English Language’ (1746-1755), contained 42,773 entries.
In 1857 a new book was started the Oxford English Dictionary that it took another 70 years to be finished, it eventually appeared in (1928). -
AMERICAN ENGLISH 17th, 18th and 19th Century
American English has developed into some new varieties, including regional dialects that, in some cases, show minor influences in the last two centuries from successive waves of immigrant speakers of diverse languages.
American English varieties include many patterns of pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, and particularly spelling that are unified nationwide but distinct from other English dialects around the world. American English continues to evolve. -
INTERNET ENGLISH
In (1972) the first email was sent. Soon the Internet arrived bringing a lot o new words to English language like ‘download’, ‘toolbar’, ‘firewall’; and a lot of abbreviations like IMHO (‘In my humble opinion’), BTW (‘by the way’), LOL (‘laugh out loud’ and ‘lots of love’). -
GLOBAL ENGLISH
Right now around 1.5 billion people now speak English. Of these about a quarter are native speakers, a quarter speak it as their second language, and half are able to ask for directions to a swimming pool. English continues to evolve.
