Evolution of English Language and Literacy

By dberns01
  • Period: 55 BCE to 600

    England before the English

  • 410

    Goths invade Rome and Germanic tribes settle in Britain

  • 449

    English language began

    Germanic tribes settled in England.
  • 500

    Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Frisians (Germanic people) settle in Britain speaking West Germanic dialect. Celts settle in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.

  • 597

    St. Augustine and missionaries, sent by the Pope from Ireland, convert Anglo-Saxons to Christianity. New religious words from Latin and Greek are introduced.

  • Period: 600 to 1100

    Old English or Anglo-Saxon English

  • 700

    Earliest record of a manuscript in Old English

  • 890

    King Alfred of Wessex translates Latin literature into English and develops writing of prose in English.

  • 900

    Old Norse loanwords become a part of the English language.

    club (English) = klubba (Old Norse) = a heavy, blunt weapon
    steak (English) = steik ( Old Norse) = to fry
    dregs (English) = dreggs (Old Norse) = sediment
    cast ( English) = kasta (Old Norse) = to throw
  • 991

    *The Battle of Maldon* written in Old English

  • 1000

    The only surviving manuscript of _Beowulf_, written anonymously

    Beowulf used a modified Roman alphabet ("7" stands for "and", and "w" was written as one "u" or two "u" symbols; hence the word "Double u").
  • 1066

    William of Normandy becomes King of England after killing King Harold at The Battle of Hastings.

    The upper class speaks Norman French.
    The majority of the English population speaks English.
    Churches and schools use Latin.
  • Period: 1100 to 1500

    Middle English

  • 1150

    Date of the earliest Middle English texts

  • 1171

    University of Oxford is funded

  • 1204

    England is the only home of Norman French/English.

  • 1209

    University of Cambridge is formed by Oxford scholars.

  • 1215

    The Magna Carta ("Great Charter") is signed by King John

  • 1258

    King Henry III is forced to accept England's first written constitution.

  • 1291

    English is the main language of people in all classes.

  • 1362

    English becomes the official language of England.

  • 1382

    John Wycliffe translated the Bible from Latin into English.

  • 1387

    Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales in Middle English

    English becomes the official language in the courts and schools.
  • 1399

    King Henry IV is the first king to deliver his coronation speech in English

  • 1476

    William Caxton invented the printing press and publishes The Canterbury Tales

  • Period: 1500 to

    Early Modern English or Shakespearean English

  • 1534

    william Tyndale published an English translation of the Bible

  • 1553

    Thomas Wilson publishes The Art of Rhetorique; one of the first works of logic and rhetoric in the English language.

  • The Pamphlet for Grammar is published by William Bullokar

  • Shakespeare begins to write sonnets and most of his plays

  • Robert Cawdrey publishes the first English dictionary, Table Alphabeticall

  • The "King James" Bible is published

  • Weekly News, the first English newspaper, is published in London.

  • The first "folio" of Shakespeare's plays is published.

  • The Royal Society of London appoints a committee to "improve" English as a language of science.

  • John Milton publishes the epic poem "Paradise Lost".