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Period: 400 to
History of the English Language
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450
Earliest Old English inscriptions
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450
Anglo-Saxon settlement (Angles, Frisians, Saxons, Jutes) of Britain begins
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Period: 450 to Jan 1, 1100
Old English
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500
Germanic tribes invade Britain
The Angles, the Saxons, and the Jutes invade Britain. The inhabitants of Britain at the time spoke Celtic, but these German tribes pushed them west and north. The Angles tribe brought with them their language of Englisc, from which the word English is derived. -
597
St. Augustine arrives in Britain
Beginning of Christian conversion of the Anglo-Saxons. -
Jan 1, 600
Anglo-Saxon language covers most of modern-day England
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Jan 1, 660
“Cædmon's Hymn” composed in Old English
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Jan 1, 800
Old English epic poem “Beowulf” composed
Excerpt from Beowolf:
LO, praise of the prowess of people-kings
of spear-armed Danes, in days long sped,
we have heard, and what honor the athelings won!
Oft Scyld the Scefing from squadroned foes,
from many a tribe, the mead-bench tore,
awing the earls. Since erst he lay
friendless, a foundling, fate repaid him:
for he waxed under welkin, in wealth he throve,
till before him the folk, both far and near,
who house by the whale-path, heard his mandate,
gave him gifts: a good king he! -
Jan 1, 871
Alfred the Great becomes king of Wessex, encourages English prose and translation of Latin works
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Period: Jan 1, 1100 to Jan 5, 1500
Middle English
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Jan 1, 1150
The oldest surviving manuscripts in Middle English date from this period
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Jan 1, 1154
“The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle” discontinued
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Jan 1, 1167
Oxford University established
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Jan 1, 1180
The “Ormulum” text of the monk Orm completed
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Jan 1, 1362
1362The Statute of Pleading replaces French with English as the language of law (although records continue to be kept in Latin)
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Jan 1, 1384
John Wycliffe publishes his English translation of “The Bible”
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Jan 1, 1388
Chaucer begins “The Canterbury Tales”
The Canterbury Tales is a collection of 24 stories that runs over 17,000 lines written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer. Excerpt:
WHAN that Aprille with his shoures soote
The droghte of Marche hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich icour,
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his halfe cours y-ronne -
Feb 10, 1476
William Caxton establishes the first English printing press
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Feb 10, 1492
Columbus discovers America
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Period: Jan 1, 1500 to
Early Modern English
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First Folio of Shakespeare’s works is published
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American Revolution
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First publication of “The Times” newspaper in London
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Period: to
Late Modern English
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Noah Webster publishes his “The American Dictionary of the English Language”
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Second edition of the “Oxford English Dictionary” is published
