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500 BCE
Celts
The Celts were the earliest inhabitants of the British Isles to leave a mark on the English language. -
Period: 450 BCE to Apr 21, 1150
Old English
No single, agreed system of spelling.
Heavy use of inflections (parts of words, usually endings, that indicate grammatical functions, e.g. ‘-eth’).
Muscular quality to the words: short, direct and forceful.
Grammatical gender in nouns and adjectives.
Writing system involved runes as well as the Roman alphabet.
Use of kennings, e.g. ‘bone-house’ = body.
Flexible word order due to inflections. -
55 BCE
Romans
Romans invaded and ruled British Isles for over 400 years. Only around 200 Latin loanwords were inherited from the Romans - although by the 6th century the Church brought many more. -
449
Anglo Saxons
Germanic tribes invaded England (5th century) and established the Anglo Saxon Heptarchy (a collective name applied to the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of south, east, and central Great Britain) and introduced their language. -
Apr 20, 789
Vikings
For a hundred years the Vikings controled most of Eastern England, before being pushed back into the North East of the country by King Alfred the Great. They remained in power in the North East until the late 900s, in an area then known as Danelaw. During this time King Alfred used the English language to develop a sense of national identity amongst the English. -
Apr 20, 1000
Beowulf
Approximate date of the only surviving manuscript of Beowulf.
It is the longest epic poem in Old English, the language spoken in Anglo-Saxon England before the Norman Conquest.
It relates the exploits of its eponymous hero, and his successive battles with a monster named Grendel. -
Apr 20, 1066
Normans
The Normans transformed England, both culturally and linguistically. For over 300 years French was the language spoken by the most powerful people - royalty, aristocrats and high-powered officials - some of whom couldn't speak English at all.
French was used in political documents, in administration, and in literature. Latin was still the language of the church and scholars, but most of the general population spoke English in their everyday lives. -
Period: Apr 20, 1150 to Apr 21, 1500
Middle English
Non-standard / inconsistent spelling.
Grammatical conversions: verbification, prefixation, suffixation, compounding.
Lack of ‘do’ constructions for questions / negatives (e.g. ‘enter not’, ‘sit not’.
Capitals used for proper nouns but also for important common nouns.
Changing vowel sounds (as the Great Vowel Shift began).
French words: more elegant and refined with softer sounds and different stress on the endings of words. -
Apr 20, 1385
Chaucer's Canterbury Tales
The Canterbury Tales is a collection of 24 stories that runs to over 17,000 lines written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387–1400. -
Apr 20, 1476
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a period in European history, from the 14th to the 17th century, regarded as the cultural bridge between the Middle Ages and modern history.
During this time, Caxton introduced the printing press (1476) to England. Printers had to make a choice about which words, grammar and spellings to use. The choices they made help to set and spread a standard language. They based their decisions on the dialects of the South East - the most socially and economically influential region. -
Period: Apr 20, 1500 to
Early Modern English
Spelling and punctuation started to become more standardised.
Phonology was influenced by the Great Vowel Shift. This is where the pronunciation of long vowel sounds transformed to become similar to the pronunciation we have today.
Many prefixes (anti-, post-, pre-) and suffixes (-ate, -ic, -al) were taken from Latin. Latin words are often lengthy and sound weighty and learned.
Word order became more fixed: subject > verb > object. -
Apr 20, 1564
Shakeaspeare
Shakespeare made a huge impact on the English language, leading to a more romantic style of literature, with French and Italian influences (as well as creating his own words).
He reduced inflections on endings of words, which led to grammatical conversion (particularly making verbs from nouns),
He also introduced idiomatic expressions into normal language. -
13 colonies
In 1607, Captain John Smith founded a permanent colony at Jamestown in Virginia. The Thirteen Colonies were a group of British colonies on the east coast of North America founded in the 17th and 18th centuries that declared independence in 1776 and formed the United States. -
Period: to
Modern English
Spelling became much more consistent and standardised.
English became much more standardised as a whole.
Americanisms and American spellings (e.g. or/our and re/er endings) started to form.
Newly coined words were used more heavily and quickly.
Use of auxiliary verbs became mandatory in interrogative sentences, e.g. ‘did he go running?’.
Archaic possessive pronouns were still in use in earlier examples of texts, e.g. ‘thy’ and ‘thou’. -
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in the period from about 1760 to sometime between 1820 and 1840. This transition included going from hand production methods to machines, etc. This was an age of inventions and contraptions, of science & industry, of expanding cities & smog-gurgling factories, so the language must swell to accommodate new ideas. -
British Empire
By 1783, Britain had established an empire which comprised:
Colonies in Canada, America and the West Indies.
Trading posts in India.
Naval bases in the Mediterranean - Gibraltar and Minorca.
However, Britain's defeat in the American War of Independence (1775‒1783) meant the loss of the American colonies and the end of the 'first British Empire'. -
Today English
1900-Today
A century of world wars, technological transformation, and globalisation. The language continues to grow, expanding to incorporate new jargons, slangs, technologies, toys, foods and gadgets. -
Period: to
Late Modern English
Standard spelling and grammar systems.
Acronyms have become a normal part of language, e.g. ‘omg’, ‘lol’.
Grammar rules can be flouted more easily.
Grammar can be used to suit the formality of the text.
Slang and jargon is heavily used.
In the written word, informality is much more common, especially in journalism where fronted conjunctions and the use of bullet points are normal, particularly in online news articles (appealing to on-the-go readers).
