Old English (450-1100)

By Pollard
  • Oct 15, 1066

    The Normans

    William of Normandy invaded England and won the battle of Hastings whilst bringing Norman French to the country. This was now the language of power and wealth of education and the law. The old language was pushed aside and used by the poorer people of that time. These letter combinations came with the Normans:
    - qu
    - gh
    - ch
    - oo
    Latin began to become even more important as it was the language of the church. Around 30% of English words are Latinate in origin.

  • The Anglo-Saxons

    The Angles invaded in the 5th century. They spoke differen dialect of a lnguge known as West Germanic which comes from Old English. Most of the lexis we use today occurs in Anglo-Saxon as it was its own inflected language.