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450
Romans leave England
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Period: 450 to 1000
English before English
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451
Saxons and Anglos arrive to England
This is where the "Anglosaxon" term comes from. -
597
Christians reach the British
Carrying Latin words with them. -
800
Viking invasion in the Island
Introduced Nordic words to the language. -
Period: 1020 to 1500
Normans in London
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1066
The Normans invade the British Islands
They brought more words from French and Latin to the native speakers. -
1337
The Hundred Years' War
England vs. France, a 116 years conflict with a lot of new words in it. -
Period: 1564 to
The Shakespeare Era
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Shakespeare and Literature
He invented about two thousand new words for the language, his books "Hamlet", "Henry V" and "Twelfth Night" are masterpieces. -
Period: to
A New Bible
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King James' Bible
With the translation to english of the bible, a lot of words and idioms were invented and adapted to the language. -
A religious glosary
The new bible made people start talking in very similar way to modern english nowadays, transforming the communication. -
Period: to
Science kicks in
With new inventions ahead, new words and terms were created. -
The Royal Society
A group with scientific intentions appeared. -
Biology, Physics, Electricity...
New knowledge required appropriate terms. -
Period: to
The British Empire
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The Sun stands
With the colonization of new territories, the Britons found out new words, like the ones from the Carribean. -
Bharat, Jamaica, The 13 Colonies, Australia...
All of them had native populations before the European arrival, and their own languages and dialects, words like "yoga", cannibal" and "bungalow". -
A Dictionary
The Oxford University started to write a brand new dictionary for the English language, it took a lot of time to finish. -
Period: to
Modernity
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The America's Way
The industrial revolution and the independence of the United States made words change according to the nationality you have, the difference between "cookie" and "biscuit" ilustrates this perfectly. -
The Internet
We know it, we use it, and we adapted english to the new technological terms needed for it, "hack", "modem", "click" and similar stuff come from here. -
One World, One Language
“The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.” – Ludwig Wittgenstein