History of english

By gabriel.v.s
  • 600 BCE

    THE CELTS

    The first languages we know about in the British Isles are the Celtic ones like Welsh and Scottish Gaelic.
    These people probably settled here about
    600BC, that is more than 2500 years ago.
  • 55 BCE

    THE ROMANS

    In 55BC there was an invasion by the Romans who spoke Latin.
    They gave Latin names to places and some of these names are still used today.
  • 450

    THE ANGLO-SAXONS

    The first people who spoke English
    conquered England in about the Year 450.
    These people were known as Anglo-Saxon
    and their language is also often called
    Anglo-Saxon or Old English.
  • 800

    THE VIKINGS

    From about 800 the Vikings started to invade Britain.
    The Vikings came from countries like Denmark and
    Norway and spoke a language which later developed
    into Norwegian and Danish
  • 1066

    THE NORMANS

    In 1066 Normans invaded England from Normandy in France.
    They spoke an earlier version of French and this became the high status language in England.
  • Period: 1150 to 1450

    MIDDLE ENGLISH

    There were no more invasions of England and gradually English took over again from French. The English spoken around this time is called Middle English.
    A number of books were published in Middle English.
    The most famous is a book of cracking stories called
    The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer.
  • 1284

    WALES

    Wales joined England in 1284
  • 1303

    SCOTLAND

    scotland joined england in 1303
  • 1476

    THE PRINTING PRESS

    Books have been written in English since the 9th century, but it was with the introduction of the printing press by Thomas Caxton in 1476 that publishing really took off.
    With the printing also came an interest
    in a standard way of writing English.
  • 1564

    WILLIAM SEKESPEARE

    There are many important authors in Modern English, however one of the most well-known writers is William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616).
    He deserves a mention here since many words in English are first found in his plays. It could be that he invented words or that he took words that were only used in spoken English and put them in print.

  • IRLEAND

    Ireland joined england in 1800 but seceded in 1922 and now only northern ireland is part of england.