The English Language

  • 500

    The origins of Old English - Celts and Romans

    Population of no more than 500,000 individuals, each with their own traditions. The only language they know comes from inscriptions in the runic alphabet, and only few words that have survived to this day.
  • 500

    Old English - the Anglo-Saxon invasion

    The British Isles were invaded by Angles ( northern Germy), Saxons ( Germany) and Jutes ( Jutland/ Denmark) and that´s was the first sign of a language we all could speak as we know as English today
  • Period: 500 to Jan 1, 1066

    Old English before 1066

  • Jan 1, 787

    Two major influences

    Latin from the Chrisiian missionaries and scholars and Norse from the Danish Vikings From 787-1066
  • Jan 1, 800

    Old English- the Anglo-Saxon invasion

    Runic alphabet was replaced by Roman letters. It is possible for a moderne reader to recognize a few words from this time.
  • Jan 1, 1066

    A Trilingual Nation

    England had become a trilingual nation for a while.
  • Jan 1, 1066

    Vocabulary

    Before the Normans invaded in 1066, alle the 90 pre cent of all the words was still Old English origin. By the end of the middle ages there was only 75 pre cent.
  • Period: Jan 1, 1066 to Jan 1, 1470

    Middle English

  • Jan 1, 1384

    Bible

    The Bible got translate into English and with that followed several new words
  • Jan 1, 1460

    Gramma

    The gramma got replaced with the gramma we see in English today
  • Jan 1, 1465

    Sound and spelling

    Some letters got remove and replaced. Different ways to write the same words got removed.
  • Jan 1, 1470

    English got influenced by French and Latin

    All though the English got influenced by French and Latin by the end of 1470 it was quite familiar to the modern English
  • Period: Jan 1, 1476 to

    Early Modern English

  • Jan 1, 1490

    Text translation

    A lot of text got translated from different languages into English with that followed new words and meanings
  • Language and Literature

    Two distinct factors in particular dominated the development of Moderne English: Shakespeare´s works and the King James Bible
  • The first dictionary

  • Short Introdution to English Grammar

  • Pronouncing Dictionary

  • American English

    America got gained independence from Britain and they thought, is a new nation the needed a new language
  • Less chances

    The major changes in the English language there was taken place reflect the muliple social, scientific, technological and economic developments.
  • Period: to

    Modern English

  • Small differences

    The bigste differences between Early Modern and Mordern English is the different meanings and pronunciations of some words
  • The largest colonial empire

    Britains had the largest colonies through the time being, and when the colonies travelled around, they spread their way of english language
  • An important role

    USA had a big impact as well, because they had a big role worldwide on the politically side. Then the American English got spread in that way.
  • Big numbers of English artikels

    the Science Citation Index reported that 95% of all articles is written in English
  • English spoken people

    English is now a very large language and many people are speaking it as their second or foreign language