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Period: 400 to
time
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700
Record of old English manuscripts
This is a record of the oldest old English manuscripts. It is just an approximate date though. -
700
Rise of the Saxon kingdom
Irish missionaries convert Anglo-Saxons to Christianity, introducing new religious words borrowed from Latin and Greek. Latin speakers begin referring to the country as Anglia and later as England. -
900
Danes raid England
Danes raid England, occupy Northumbria, and establish a kingdom at York. Danish begins to influence English. -
1000
Suspected date of Beowulf's writing
The oldest surviving poem that shows what the language was like. -
1000
English and Danes mix fairly peacefully
many Scandinavian (or Old Norse) loanwords enter the language, including such common words as sister, wish, skin, and die. -
1066
The Norman Invasion
The Norman Invasion was a big event that happened that changed the style of English used it changed it to middle English which was a mix between old English and French. -
1387
Chaucer's Canterbury Tales
The style of writing that was used in the Chaucer's Canterbury Tales was Middle English which was a mix of French and old English. -
1440
The invention of the Printing Press
This finalized the English language in a way so that it had a solid base for vocabulary to grow on. This made books cheaper and that way more people learned how to read. books also made it easier for people to learn and to add on to the already existing vocabulary. -
1492
The discovery of North America
North America was discovered by Amerigo Vespucci in 1492. This created a whole new content for languages to mix and to evolve in. English was introduced to America and after year and years, the American English split from the Europian English. -
first grammar of English
This added to the structuring of the new English. This helped make the English language more structured so it could just work on vocabulary. -
Publication of Shakespeare's First Folio
This is right when middle English switched over to modern English so there was a mix between modern and middle English in his plays. -
The Daily Courant
this is the first regular daily newspaper in English, is published in London. This helped a lot of people stay connected with writing and keeping the English language evolving. -
Period: to
Industrial Revolution
This was a time period where there was a lot of new inventions and ideas going around which caused people to make new vocabulary for the new inventions and call things different names adding to the creation and evolution of the different languages. -
American Revolution
This time period Is when we the Americans declared our independence and started fighting the British in hopes that we could be our own country. That caused an even larger but subtle split in the two languages and we started to develop our own words and our own vocabulary separate from the British rule.