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Period: 450 to 1100
Old English Times
Bedight - Decorate , Bight - Bend , Besmirch - Smear , Stalwart - Strong , Swain - The lover of a girl -
480
Earliest English Inscriptions
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725
Beowulf's Writing
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792
The Vikings raid of the British begins
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871
"The anglo - saxon chronicles" begins
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1066
The Norman Invasion
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Period: 1100 to 1500
Middle English Times
Anon - At once ,
Ay - Always ,
Cas - Happening ,
Coy - Quiet ,
Er - Before -
1349
The Black Death kills 1/3 of the British Population
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1362
English is used in the English parliament for the first time
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1385
English replaces Latin in schools
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1387
Chaucer's Canterbury Tales
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1440
The Printing Press invented
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1492
The Discovery of North America
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1500
Start of English Renaissance
Early Modern -
Period: 1500 to
Early Modern English
A major factor separating Middle English from Modern English is known as the Great Vowel Shift, a radical change in pronunciation during the 15th, 16th and 17th Century, as a result of which long vowel sounds began to be made higher and further forward in the mouth. -
Shakespeare writes his first play
Early Modern -
American Revolution
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Period: to
Late Modern English
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The Great Depression
Late Modern -
Shakespeare's First Folio