Middle english

Middle English

By ccabrerar2
  • 1066

    The Norman Conquest

    The Norman Conquest
    With the Norman conquest began the transition from Old English to Middle English. William the conqueror and later William I invaded the island of Britain from France. He crushed the opposition and deprive the Anglo-Saxon of their properties. The Normans descended from Vikings, settling in northern France who adopted the French language.
  • 1100

    London

    London
    London became the Norman capital and the other regional varieties came to be stigmatized as lacking social prestige and indicating a lack of education.
  • 1150

    Use of Francien and Latin words

    Use of Francien and Latin words
    During the reign of the Norman King Henry II and his queen Eleanor of Aquitaine many more Francien words from central France were imported. Many more Latin-derived words came into use.
  • 1150

    Orm, a monk

    Orm, a monk
    Orm, a monk, wrote the “Ormulum”, a 19,000 line biblical text, which is a source of the way Middle English was pronounced.
  • 1154

    The Venerable "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle"

    The Venerable "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle"
    The venerable “Anglo-Saxon Chronicle” recorded its last historical entry of the English people.
  • 1167

    The Foundation of the Oxford University

    The Foundation of the Oxford University
    The University of Oxford was founded.
  • 1204

    The Loss of the French part of Normandy

    The Loss of the French part of Normandy
    King John and England lost the French part of Normandy to the King of France, so England became more isolated.
  • 1209

    Foundation of the University of Cambridge

    Foundation of the University of Cambridge
    The University of Cambridge was founded.
  • Period: 1250 to 1300

    English, the language of England

    English emerged as the language of England.
  • 1300

    English - the language of uneducated peasantry

    English - the language of uneducated peasantry
    English was the language mainly of uneducated peasantry, and as a result many of the grammatical complexities and inflections of Old English gradually disappeared like noun genders and adjective inflections. Word order became more important (subject+verb+object). In pronunciation many vowels developed in the “schwa” sound.
  • Period: 1337 to 1453

    The Hundred Year War

    Link text
  • Period: 1349 to 1350

    The Black Death Plague

    The Black death plague killed a third of the English population. After it, the English-speaking laboring and merchant classes grew in importance. The linguistic division between nobility and commoners was over.
  • 1350

    French additions into English

    French additions into English
    More French additions continued to stream into English.
  • 1362

    English became the official language

    English became the official language
    English was adopted as the official language according to The Statue of Pleading. King Edward III addressed Parliament in English.
  • 1385

    English, the language of instruction

    English, the language of instruction
    English became the language of instruction in schools.
  • 1399

    Henry IV

    Henry IV
    Henry IV was the first monarch to have English as his mother tongue whereas other kings and the nobility spoke Anglo-Norman French, but Latin was mostly used by the church and in official records. However, the peasantry and lower classes spoke English. The mixture of old English and Anglo-Norman is usually referred to as Middle English.