Origins of English as language

Invasion of Britain (Origin)

449

Three Germanic tribes, the Jutes, Saxons and Angles were looking for lands to conquer, they used to speak a dialect.
Native britons were moved into the lands that are known today as Scotland, Ireland, and Wales.

Primitive English

500

All the different tribes that were arriving to Britain spoke many tongues especially one called Frisian from some words were adapted and than adopted by English language.
Some examples of this words are:miel (meal), laam (lamb), goes (goose), bûter (butter), tsiis (cheese), see (sea),etc.

The origin of Englisc (Old english)

600

Saxons became the dominant group. Their new nation became known as Anglaland or Englaland and its emerging language as Englisc. English started to became more independent from the German Dialect and after that 4 different types of old englished emerged, Northumbrian in the north of England, Mercian in the midlands, West Saxon in the south and west, and Kentish in the southeast.

Christianity

601

Augustine became Archbishop of Canterbury.The Celts and the early Anglo-Saxons used an alphabet of runes.Early Christian missionaries introduced the more rounded Roman alphabet more similar as what we know today. The kingdoms started to adopt a variety of words that were used by the church and than latin brought some other words.

Vikings Invasion

789

The vikings shared cultural similarities with the Anglo-Saxons, they brought their own language, another impact on the developing English language. Words such as sky, skin, wagon originated with the language of the Vikings.

Early Middle English

1066

Old French became the language of the court, of the government, the church, and all the aristocratic entities. Old English, the language of the Anglo-Saxons, existed only among the conquered lower orders of society. However, within three to four hundred years, the English language emerged, greatly enriched by French vocabulary and distinctly different from the Anglo-Saxons’ Old English, Chaucer’s language, now referred to as Middle English.

Late Middle English

1300

During the Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453) between England and France meant that English was used more and more in official documents. This helped to standardize the language and make it more uniform.

Modern English

1500

The Early Modern English period, brgan after the introduction of the printing press in England. Books started to be produced in mass and more people learned to read and write. As a result, the standardization of English continued.